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A Brief History of the Rig

The earliest known picture of a sailing vessel is on an Egyptian urn of the 4th century B.C. , but we assume man was able to harness the power of the wind for the propulsion of boats and rafts long before that time. Once the art of weaving cloth was discovered, sails could be made. Before that, it is assumed that branches with dense foliage, large leaves, skins or mats must of been the earliest sails. In the earliest attempts at sailing, sailors used the power of the wind to push them from behind, but as time went on, they found ways to trim the sails so they could sail even with the wind from a beam.

The original type of sail was a square sail bent to a yard, a horizontal spar hung from the mast at right angles to the ship's centerline. In this position, the sail has maximum resistance to a following wind. If the angle of the sail is changed with the help of braces, the ship can be sailed with the wind from over the quarter to forward of the beam. Until around the middle of the 5th century A.D., all ships had square sails. Examples of these were the Nordic ships, the Phoenician dromons, the Greek triremes and the Roman warships. However, warships did not usually set sails in battle because the ships were much faster and easier maneuvered with oars.

Not much is known about the further development of shipbuilding in northern Europe. We hear of nothing in Mediterranean shipbuilding from the 5th to the 9th centuries A.D., until a new type of Mediterranean vessel appears, the lateen rig. We do not know who to credit with the invention of the lateen rig. The lanteen wail was triangular and was set on a sloping yard lashed to the mast parallel to the ship's center line. The lateen sail was the first fore-and-aft sail and from it many future sails were developed. Typical lateen-rigged vessels are found in examples of the 15th and 16th century galleys and galeasses, Columbus' caravels and the Arab dhows.

The square sail appeared in the Mediterranean beginning in the 14th century. Towards the end of the 14th century, vessels in both the northern and southern countries began combining both types of rigs by setting square sails on the forward masts and lateen sails on the after masts. This type of ship was fairly common at the beginning of the 15th century.

In the 16th century, Holland became the most important seafaring nation. This became the Golden Age of shipbuilding. One of the most important invention to the rig was the adoption of the staysail, which was only set as headsail on the forestay but later appeared on the other masts and topmast stays. The job belongs in this category of sails. From about 1660 onwards all large sailing ships set staysails.

From the middle of the 17th century, the gaff rig came into use. In this design, the sail is bent to a spar the lower end of which rests against the mast, gripping it with a prong, or gaff. That is how the name came about. Fast vessels such as the Dutch yachts began to set gaff sails as their main sails as early as the 17th century. The rig allowed vessels to sail close to the wind and to be come independent of the wind direction. Many of the merchant schooners of the 19th and early 20th centuries were gaff-rigged.

As ships grew in size, the sail area had to be increased. In ships with many masts, the square sails eventually became so large that in heavy weather they were difficult to handle. The sail area had to be split up into more and smaller sails.

The Santa Maria is the first ship of which we know to have set a main topsail over the mainsail. From this, the pyramid of sails grew. Soon after the topsail the topgallant emerged in the second half of the 18th century. In the 19th century, skysails and the moonsails were added.