If you think you're confused about what type of ship is what, then you're in good company. Ship rigging is very confusing and rarely explained in anything resembling English. This section will try and clarify how the ships are rigged, that is how the sails are arranged. Three things will determine what kind of ship you're about to board. A mast is the tall pole sticking up from the deck of a ship.
Most sailing ships have between one and three mast but some have four.
To simplify matters I'm going to only discuss ships of three masts or less. The sails can be rigged to the mast in two fashions. Typically only one fashion of rigging is used throughout the vessel but in some cases their is a mix of both types of rigging. Rigging is simply defined as the way the sail is attached to the ship. Sail can be attached to a gaff which is a spar or poll that juts out from the mast.