Rigs of four-masted barques

The first modern four-masted ship was the L'Invention built in 1801. Excluding the two timber rafts Columbia and Baron of Renfrew, the first four-masted barque was built by Donald McKay, East Boston, in 1854.

Masts

The masts of a barque-rigged four-masted ship were named from the bow:

	Masts
	1st	2nd	3rd	4th
Dutch
English	fore-mast	main-mast	mizzen-mast	jigger-mast
French	mât de misaine	grand mât
German	Fochmast	Großmast	Kreutzmast
Swedish	fockmast	stormast	kryssmast	mesanmast

Of the four-masted ships and barques, the Lawhill was unique with its topgallant masts rigged on the aft side of the topmasts.

Pole masts

Rig

There were several variants of the four-masted barque rig of which the following were known by their own name:

Baldheaded
Stump top-gallant rig
Jubilee rig: No sails above double top- and topgallant sails. Called jubilee rig because it has been said that the rig appeared for the first time in 1887 or at the same time as the Silver Jubilee of Queen Victoria.
English or Liverpool rig: Four-sided mizzen set on a standing gaff. Royal sails above single topgallant sails.
Scottish or Glasgow rig: Triangular mizzen and royal sails over double topgallant sails.

Updated 1998-09-11 by Lars Bruzelius

Sjöhistoriska Samfundet | The Maritime History Virtual Archives.