We awakened yesterday morning to see that Actress had spent the night alone in Great Cove. She’s a 75-foot Brigantine out of Belfast, Maine, originally launched in 1937.
Actress apparently is the only Brigantine in the Maine coastal cruiser fleet. A Brigantine is a two-masted vessel carrying square-rigged sails on spars on the foremast and gaff-rigged, triangulated sails on the second mast. Brigantines were developed as more easily sailed hybrids of Brigs. A Brig also is two-masted, but both of its masts are square-rigged.
The names of these vessels are derived from “Brigand,” because Brigs were favored by pirates. In fact, Brigantines were called “Hermaphrodite Brigs” for some time, but then some fusspot apparently looked up the definition of “Hermaphrodite.”
(Brooklin, Maine)