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From: baillod
Category: Shipwreck Research
Date: 21 Nov 2006
Time: 15:22:58
Remote Name: 64.73.69.5
Jim, I did a pretty in depth study of brigs/brigantines on the Lakes during the search for the Mahoning here on Lake Michigan. Kevin has described the important differences very well. I would add that rigs on the Lakes seldom matched the classic descriptions used for ocean sailing ships. Most Lake brigs were actually brigantines in the classic sense and there were also many early vessels (1830s) described in enrollment docs as Hermaphrodite Brigs. A hermaphrodite brig is a two-masted vessel with her foremast fully square rigged and her mainmast fore-and-aft rigged. These vessels are today usually called brigantines, but strictly speaking a true brigantine should have square topsails on her main topmast. The hermaphrodite brig can be said to belong to the family of schooners. In Scandinavia, the hermaphrodite brig is often referred to as a `square sail schooner.' The time of the brigs was relatively short on the Lakes with the last example built as a brig being the E. Cohen built 1867. Brigs had been on the Lakes from early times (War of 1812), but they really didn't come into common commercial use until the 1830s. They were not, as is often reported, deprecated because their square sails made them unwieldly on the Lakes (although this is generally true). In fact, brigs disappeared largely because they were supplanted by larger 3 masted square riggers (barks) that could haul more grain. Brigs really only disappeared because the newer, larger ships needed a third mast. Square rigged vessels (in the form of large grain carrying barks/barkentines) were still common on the Lakes well into the 1880s. They really only disappeared entirely due to the popularity of steam for commercial traffic in the 1890s, when most of the remaining barks and large schooners were cut down to tow barges.
I have a few photos of actual brigs on the Lakes that I can share offline. HCGL also has a good contemporary (1867) artist's conception of the E. Cohen in their online database.