Merchant-SHIP

The largest merchant ships are those employed by the different European companies of merchants who trade to the East-Indies. They are in general somewhat larger than our forty-gun ships: they are mounted with twenty cannon on their upper-deck, which are nine pounders, and six on their quarter-deck, which are six pounders. Plate IX. fig. 5. represents a view of one of these vessels on the larboard bow, where a is the ensign-staff, A the mizen-mast, B the main-mast, C the fore-mast, K the poop, L L an awning of wood extending across the after part of the quarter-deck, M poop-ladder, N 0 steps of the gangway, P head of the capstern on the quarterdeck, QR the skeeds on the gangway, r the belfry on the forecastle, f the timber-heads, y the cut-water, with a lion-head fixed upon it. The other parts of this ship represented in the figure are referred to from the explanations of the head, plate IV. and the quarter in plate VIII.

Plates IV and VIII

Fig. 6. plate IX. exhibits a quarter view of a foreign-built East-India-man, with a square tuck, or perpendicular counter, and having three poop lanthorns fixed on her taffarel.

Plate IX

Reference Works