Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1914-07-09
DEVELOP MENI OF
CANVAS-WINGED
sailing Ship

The Russian bark August recently
loading at the Hastings sawmill. Brit.
ish Columbia, is true .yp9 Of bark,
having three mass, two squar,rigged
and one fore-andaft. The four-mast-
ed German bark Schiffbek. which has
just been towed to sea with a full
cargo at the Hastings mill. was not a
true bark. The bark rig is the oldest
rig seen on a vessel now. 1t appeared
first in the thirteenth century The
type of vessel called ] earavel. in
which the able and daring Portuguese
and Spanish sailors sailed on their
voyages of romance and adventure,
and in which they made their great
discoveries. was rugged IN this way
except that the mizzen mast had a
lateen sail. :....:.- +.
The Schiffbek, though called bark,
is really a four-masted ship fore-and-
aft rugged on the spanker mast. The
word bark. OF course, Is generic, like
the word ship, and bark is the cor,
rect spelling. The word is as old as
navigation. 1t is nearly as Did as the
word ship, which began life as
writer says, "the derivation of the
word points to the fundamental con-
ception by which when realized a
means of flotation was obtained su-
perior to the raft" which is a ponder
GUS way of saying that the word ship
denoted vessel followed out.
The first vessel that depended for
flotation on something other than the
mere buoyancy of the material was,
of course, a dug-out or fire-hollowed
canoe, and no man knows how early
the time was Of which Virgil is speak.
ing when he says, Rivers then first
the followed alders felt"
At the present time. in the last
days of sail, there are more barks
afloat than vessels carrying any other
offshore sailing rig. Probably this
rig was always more common at sea
than any other. 1t is almost the same
now as in the time of Columbus, ex-
cept that it has lost the lateen. While
the brig was called the handiest and
ablest of all square-rigs, the bark was
always the most popular with ship.
owners for large vessels, because it
required less hands to work 1t than
the ship rig. The bark has several
variations, one of which is called bark.
entine. This is a vessel with more
than one fore-and-aft rugged mast.
Nearly all the early steamers were
barkentfne rugged Many waTships
when steam was young were rugged
as barkentines. The famous old IRON
clad Agincourt was five-masted bark
entine. F..
The schooner rig is also very old,
and was not as many believe an Am
erican invention. There is in exis-
tence a seventeenth century print
representing the siege of Dunkirk, in
which are shown plainly vessels rig.
ged as the modern schooner, with
mainsail. foresail and jib; the fore
sail smaller than the main. The siege
of Dunkirk was in 1858. This vessel
was then common on the coasts Of
Flanders and Normandy and was call
ed a goelta. The modern French word
goeleta. Galiot il nearly the same
word The early American schOoners
carried square canvas on the fore,
mast.
AS a step from the dug-out toward
the invention of the ship, the Cana
dian birch-bark canoe was he rudi,
mentary ship, with the framework Of
longitudinal bottom boards. end rit,s
and cross bars, giving the necessary
stiffness to the covering material The
next step was vessels of Dlanks,
stitched or bolted together with in
serted ribs md decks Or halfdecks.
and the last step was vessels in which
the frame we"p firsT set up and he
planking of the hull nailed on to them.
The first vessel was the single log
of bueyant wood, not followed out
hut pointed at the ends. .