[Illustration: THIBETAN SHEEP.]
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NAVAL TACTICS.
[Illustration: Letter O.]
On being told the number and size of the sails which a vessel can carry
(that is to say, can sail with, without danger of being upset), the
uninitiated seldom fail to express much surprise. This is not so
striking in a three-decker, as in smaller vessels, because the hull of
the former stands very high out of the water, for the sake of its triple
rank of guns, and therefore bears a greater proportion to its canvas
than that of a frigate or a smaller vessel. The apparent inequality is
most obvious in the smallest vessels, as cutters: and of those kept for
pleasure, and therefore built for the purpose of sailing as fast as
possible, without reference to freight or load, there are many the hull
of which might be entirely wrapt up in the mainsail. It is of course
very rarely, if ever, that a vessel carries at one time all the sail she
is capable of; the different sails being usually employed according to
the circumstances of direction of wind and course. The sails of a ship,
when complete, are as follows:--
The lowermost sail of the mast, called thence the _mainsail_, or
_foresail_; the _topsail_, carried by the _topsail-yard_; the
_top-gallant-sail_; and above this there is also set a _royal_ sail, and
again above this, but only on emergencies, a sail significantly called a
_sky-sail_.
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