Note: Cutter and Sloop

Abstract

Goodwin follows up his article in MM Volume 1, Issue 11 by providing a self-produced drawing of a King Cutter of 1777 based on the dimensions given in a Lescallier publication. A second contributor explains that small craft operating out of the Isle of Man were known locally as sloops but Goodwin’s article would appear to refute this. A third response points out that until late in the Nineteenth Century, the distinction between the cutter-rig and the sloop rig was that the former had a nearly horizontal bowsprit and no jib-boom, whilst the sloop had a reeved bowsprit, jib-boom, and dolphin-striker. Finally the Editor (L G Carr Laughton) references an Act of 1784 which shows that the standing bowsprit was already recognised as the mark of a sloop and a cutter might be sloop-rigged, or might be rigged otherwise (i.e. smack fashion). A distinctive cutter rig did not appear to exist at this date.

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Filed under: Other (Eighteenth C) | Other (location)
Subjects include: Navies | Shipbuilding & Design