Re: Tall ****ps Youth Trust is to sell one of its brigs

On 2007-08-23 09:33:08 -0700, Ronald Raygun 
<no.spam@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> said:

> Wilbur Hubbard wrote:
> 
>> A 'brig' is the term used for a prison. You know like, "Throw the
>> bastard 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.

Yep, a brig is a two-master with the forward mast shorter than the 
after. If the forward mast is taller it's a ketch. (Unless the mizzen 
is behind the rudder post, then it's a yawl.) Just like the 
brig/brigantine distinction, a barque is a three-masted ****p 
square-rigged on the main and fore, while a barquentine is only 
square-rigged on the fore.

Someone once told me that the boat name and the term for a prison were 
etymologically related, maybe from using ****p hulks for prisons, but I 
can't find any verification of that.

-D