Schooner

Danish
Dutch
French: goëlette
German: Schuner
Spanish
Swedish: skonare

At the launching of a new ship in Gloucester, Massachusetts, in about 1713 a bystander exclaimed: "Oh, how she scoons!". The builder, Capt. Andrew Robinson, replied, " A scooner let her be!". [In a letter of 1790 quoted in Babson Hist. Gloucester, p 252],

Quotations:

1716 Hist. Rec., Boston, XXIX, p 213:: Y^e Skooner Mayflower from North Carolina.
1721 Moses Prince Letter in J.J. Babson Hist. Gloucester (Mass.), 1860, p 252:: Went to see Capt. Robinson's lady. This gentleman was the first contriver of schooners and built the first of the sort about eight years ago.
1724 Boston News-Letter, (Mass.), 16 April:: Upon the 4th instant Benjamin Chadwell in the Schooner Good-Will, of Matblehead, was taken by a private sloop.

Etymology: schooner

Edson, Merritt, A. Jr.: The Schooner Rig, Its First Appearance and Development.
The American Neptune Vol. 49, Salem, 1989. pp 198-207, ill.
Edson, Merritt A.: The Word Schooner - An Historical Aside.
Nautical Research Journal vol. 25,Washington,1979. pp 190-191,ill.
Harland, John H.: The Schooner, Additional Comments.
Nautical Research Journal Vol. 26, Bethesda, 1980. pp 98.
Bos, Ron van den: More Comments on the Word "Schooner".
Nautical Research Journal Vol. 26, Bethesda, 1980. pp 205, 212, ill.
Laughton, L.G. Carr: The Origin of the Schooner Rig.
Mariner's Mirror Vol. 1, London, 1911. pp 28, 1 pl.
Anderson, R.C.: An Early Schooner.
The Mariner's Mirror Vol. 2, London, 1923. pp 243.
Anderson, R.C.: Schooner.
The Mariner's Mirror Vol. 15, London, 1929. pp 82-83.
Laughton, L.G. Carr: An Early Schooner.
The Mariner's Mirror Vol. 18, London, 1932. pp 197, ill.

Updated 1998-06-29 by Lars Bruzelius

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