Posted by Jock on May 28, 2011 at 14:48:21 user Jock.
In Reply to: Re: Not posted by John Nichols on May 27, 2011 at 11:10:34:
At the time Ransome was writing gaff rig seems to have been almost standard in small boats around the UK.
However some Thames sailing barges were converted from gaff to sprit to make them easier to handle with
a two-man crew. (The later ones were all built with a sprit rigged mainsail.) The Welcome of Rochester which
gave Port and Starboard a lift in CC was drawn by AR as a mulie – sprit mainsail and gaff mizzen.
More on Thames barges:
