The Plymouth tribune. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1901-1911, 1909-08-05
TIE MOTHER OF ALL SAILS.
There Is a sort Of sal.

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There Is a sort of sail which may
be called the original of all sails. Hi
la're Belloc suggests this in Este Per
petda," his book of Algerian studies
and impressions. II is the sail with
which antiquity was familiar. 1t
brought the ships to Tenedos, and the
Argo carried 1t. The Norwegians had
1t when they were pirates thousand
years ago. They have it still 1t is
nearer lug-sail than anything else,
and indeed the Deal luggers carry
something very near it.
1t Is almost a square sail, Dut the
yard has a slight rake and there is
bit of peak to 1t. 1t is the kind of
sail which seems to come first into the
mind of any man when he sets out to
use the wind. In its original form II
is to be seen continually to-day, hoisted
above small boats in the north of Eu-
rope. But this sail is too simple. IL
will not go close to the wind, and in
those light and variable winds which
somehow have no force along the deck
1t hangs empty and makes no way, be-
cause it has no height.
Now when, during that great renais-
sance of theirs In the seventh century,
the Arabs left their deserts and took
to the sea. they became for a short
time in sailing. as in philosophy. the
teachers of their new subjects.
They took this sail which they had
found in all the ports they had con-
quered alongthe Mediterranean coast
In Alexandria, in Cyrene, in Carthage,
In Caesarea = they lightened and
heightened the yard. lifted the peak
up high, clewed down the foot, and
very soon had that triangular lateen
sail which will, perhaps, remain when
every other evidence of their early
conquering energy has disappeared.
With such sail they drove those
first fleets of theirs which gave them
at once the islands and the commerce
Of the Mediterranean. 1t was the sail
which permitted their invasion of the
northern shores, and the unhappy sub
lection of Spain.
Europeans have for now some seven
hundred years, from at least the Third
Crusade, so constantly used this gift
Of Islam that they half-forget its
origin. You may see il in all the
Christian harbors of the Mediterranean
to-day. in every port of the Portuguese
coast, and here and there as far north
rs the Channel. II is not to be seen
beyond Cherbourg, but in Cherbourg 1t
Is quite common.
The harbor-boats that run between
the fleet and the shore hoist these
lateens. Yet it is not of European
making. 1t bears a foreign mark,
which is very distinct, and which puz-
zles every northerner when he first
comes across this sail--it reefs along
the yard.
Why 1t should do so, neither history
nor the men who handle it can explain,
since single sails are manifestly made
10 reef from the foot to the leech,
where 8 man can best get at them
Not so the lateen. II you carry too
much canvas and the. wind is pressing
her. you must take it in from aloft, or,
1t must be supposed. lower the whole
on deck. And this foreign. quaint, un-
usual thing which stamps the lateen
everywhere. is best seen when the sail
is put away in the harbor.
1t does not lie down along the deck,
as do those In the north, but right I'D
along the yard. and the yard itself Is
KEEP high at the masthead, making a
great bow across the sky. and-one
would say-tempting Providence to
send gale aand wreck ii.
Save for this mark-which may have
its uses, but seems to have none and
to be merely barbaric-the lateen is
perfect in its kind, and might be taken
with advantage throughout the world.
as it is throughout all this united sea.
for the uniform sail.
This kind of sail is, for small craft.
the neatest and swiftest in the world.
and, in general way. will lie closer
TO the wind than any other.
Our own fore-and-aft rig is nothing
else but lateen cut up into mainsail,
foresail and jib. for the convenience Of
handling.