A
jackass-barque, sometimes spelled jackass bark, is a
sailing ship with three (or more) masts, of which the
foremast is
square-rigged and the main is partially square-rigged (
topsail,
topgallant, etc.) and partially
fore-and-aft rigged (course). The
mizzen mast is fore-and-aft rigged.
A four-masted jackass barque is square-rigged on the two foremost masts (fore and main masts) and fore-and-aft rigged on the two after masts (the mizzen and
spanker or
jiggermasts). Some 19th century sailors called such a ship "a fore-and-aft schooner chasing a brig". In general a jackass barque is a sailing ship which is half square-rigged and half fore-and-aft rigged.
A five-masted jackass barque which has probably never been built would be equipped with square-rigged fore and main masts, with a partially square-rigged and partially fore-and-aft rigged mizzen mast, and fore-and-aft rigged jigger and spanker masts.
The Olympic
A well-known example of a (white wood-hulled) four-masted jackass-barque was the
Olympic, a 1,402 GRT "Down Easter" (a square-rigged sailing ship from the dockyards of the
downeastern ports, preferably made of timber). Said to be the only one in the world, she was launched in 1892 at the shipyards of the
New England Ship Building Company,
Bath,
ME, for
Captain W. H. Besse of
New Bedford,
MA<sup>1)</sup>. Her
maiden voyage under her first master, Captain
Stephen Bourne Gibbs, led her from Bath to
New York City,
South Street Seaport, with...
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