Wilbur Hubbard wrote:

"Ronald Raygun" wrote in message
...
Wilbur Hubbard wrote:

A 'brig' is the term used for a prison. You know like, "Throw the
******* into the brig!" Buck up there, man! Call a spade a spade.
It's a 'brigantine.'

Not so. They are brigs (square rigged on both masts). Brigantines
are square rigged only on the fore mast.

That's what it says on Wikipeia at any rate, which cannot always be
taken for gospel, but ought to be good enough for you.

Is that your final answer?

What is this, "Who Wants to be a Millionaire"?

I hope not because a brigantine is a two-masted, square-rigged ship with
fore and aft mainsail. A 'brig' is a lubberly shortening of the word
'brigantine.'

A proper brig is a two masted vessel with square sails on the fore
mast and on the aft mast. It's a brigantine if there are square
sails only on the fore mast.

The word "brig" is *also* sometimes used as short for a brigantine.
I know of no evidence to support your allegation that this shortening
is "lubberly". But it does mean that when you use the term "brig"
without further clarification, it is ambiguous.

The two TSYT ships (if you can be bothered to look them up) carry square
sails on both masts and are therefore proper brigs and *not* brigantines.

Technically, I suppose, it is wrong to call them "ships".