Schooner \Schoon"er\, n. [See the Note below. Cf. Shun.]
(Naut.)
Originally, a small, sharp-built vessel, with two masts and
fore-and-aft rig. Sometimes it carried square topsails on one
or both masts and was called a topsail schooner. About
1840, longer vessels with three masts, fore-and-aft rigged,
came into use, and since that time vessels with four masts
and even with six masts, so rigged, are built. Schooners with
more than two masts are designated three-masted schooners,
four-masted schooners, etc. See Illustration in Appendix.
Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
|