The Lupine is what is called a lateener. Lateen-rigged means a triangular sail, so obviously a lateener like the Lupine has
all lateen-rigged sails rather than square-rigged sails like some of my other ships. She
is about 75 feet long and has two masts (both, as I have said many times, lateen-rigged).
Her hull is made of the finest ash wood and painted over with (surprise!) a layer of
melted pine resin. Her foremost mast has a slightly bigger sail than the mainmast, and
she has no jib, flying jib, or figurehead.
Her bowsprit isn't very long at all, very short compared to many ships (especially the S.S. Resilience with a 20-foot long doohickey). Indeed, if you weren't looking closely, from afar you would probably say she doesn't even have a bowsprit.
Upward up the rigging halfway between the mainmast is a crow's nest, not very big or very high up. The highest point of the mast (what's called the top royal gallants on all ships) is far higher than the crow's nest. Still and all, it's a nice view especially if you don't want to climb all the way up the
angled mast (since the Lupine is after all a lateener, both masts lean at an angle to support the triangular-shaped sails). A crow's nest can just about always provide a nice view (but not in a storm, obviously). Unusually, the Lupine has
two crow's nests, the other one being at the halfway point up the foremost sail. On a horizontal line, the crow's nest on the foremast is slightly lower down than the mainmast crow's nest.
The Lupine is a flat-bottomed boat, not big enough to have a deep keel like my warship S.S. Resilience. She provides relatively comfortable cabins,
about 15 in all. She doesn't have a captain's cabin, like some other ships, but instead the captain must sleep in the same type of cabin as the rest of the crew. The cabins are all below deck, since the Lupine's forecastle and poop are too small to hold a whole set of cabins in them.
She has two rudders to improve her speed, one on each side of the stern port and the starboard aft. She can go about 15 knots per hour (a knot is equal to 1.5 land miles), which is a proud top speed for almost any ship. However, I can't say she's among my fastest ships (which would be the Kestrel, and the Sunset Mage who's description is yet to come). Still, she's a fairly good sailer for her size.
The Sunset Mage is among the fastest and most beautiful of any of my ships, or indeed any ship on the blue seas.Truly one of my most favorite ships. She is what's known as a
clipper ship, which means if pushed at a good rate
her top speed is 20 knots (as I have said before, a knot is equal to 1.5 land miles) per hour (slightly faster than even my Kestrel!) Her tremendous speed is very surprising for clipper ships are traditionally extremely large and with many masts. Okay, I lied when I said the S.S. Resilience is my largest ship (but she is still the heaviest and best armed)...The Sunset Mage boasts 230 feet and five masts: A foremast, mainmast, jib, stern jib, and a flying jib out in front.
She also sports as many as 30 sails, pushing her along at a terrific speed whenever there's any wind at all. She has a slender and graceful hull, helping her speed even more. Actually her flying jib mast has not one but
three lateen-rigged sails tied to the bowsprit, all on top of each other with a gap in between each one to let the wind through, making her skim easily thorugh the water like an eagle. In real life,
a clipper ship can race from New York City around the tip of South America through the Strait of Magellan to San Francisco in less than 100 days.
Clipper ships are agreed to be one of the most magnificent and romantic models of ships. Being so large and comfortable, the Sunset Mage provides many comfortable cabins. Her forecastle and poop are not very high, making the hull one continuous streamlined shape. At her stern, she carries many small lanterns that producing a soft glowing light at night. The lanterns are actually lit by myriads of tiny fireflies inside each one. It can be a bit of a long and frightening climb to the
top royal gallants of the highest mast, the mainmast, but once you get there the view is quite simply breathtaking. I simply can't describe how it feels to be flying up there, especially during dusk when the whole scene is illumated with the warm colors of the setting sun mixed with the soft glow of the firefly lanterns at the stern...Just wow. Perfect for a dinner by candlelight.
Clipper ships are the absolute necessity for long journeys because since the Sunset Mage can glide along at a breathtaking speed and her large hull, she can hold many supplies and get wherever you're going in an incredibly short time.
Even though she is plenty big compared to most other ships, the Sunset Mage is one of the smallest of clipper ships but can can race with the best of 'em.
She's my preferred ship to go anywhere in the open seas unless I want extra protection against pilfering Corsairs and searats...that's where the S.S. Resilience comes in. But usually the magnificent Sunset Mage is very sufficient for all my needs.
The Poppycock is what's called a carrack, a fine sailing ship made from mahogany that is a combination of the best features of a cog (a single-masted ship with a square-rigged sail and high castles at both the bow and stern) and the lighter lateener.
Carracks are usually three-masted, and the Poppycock is no different. She's about
100 feet (30 meters) long. Her mainmast, which sports a
huge square-rigged sail, is very easily the tallest mast on board. The jib mast at the sterm is angled (as described on the Lupine) and is lateen-rigged and about half the height of the square-rigged mainmast.
The foremast in front is also lateen-rigged and about a third the height of the mainmast.
She has a very broad and long poop (for those of you who've forgotten, a poop is a raised deck at the stern of a ship, NOT the other kind) Therefore
the crew's cabins are located in the stern rather than at the forecastle, as is usual with other ships. Her forecastle isn't especially big but is about average-sized.
This is a kind of ship who's crow's nest is
higher than the mainmast rather than about halfway up as is the case with my lateener, Lupine, mentioned above.
The square-rigged sail of the mainmast is slightly curved outward, giving one absolutely no support against the rigging. Luckily the rigging is stretched
fairly taut from the top royal gallants to the deck. Up there (surprise!) is the crow's nest with a red pennant snapping in the breeze. A very nice view indeed, but it can't compare with the high flying sensation of the Sunset Mage's crow's nest.
She is rather a "beamy" carrack, which means she has riggings and beams all over the place ensuring that even in a storm everything will better stay intact.
The mainmast sail is very large, as I have said, stretching from the deck all the way up to the high crow's nest, to better catch the wind.
A pretty decent fairly fast ship, on the whole.
The Sunhawk is a birchbark canoe, made of strips of birch bark as said and about 15 feet long. A common characteristic of birchbark canoes is that they are traditionally very
long and light.
The Sunhawk is no different. In real life, Native Americans used to carry them from river to river because they were so light, unlike dugout canoes which are large and heavy and therefore impossible to carry any long distance.
She was painted over with (you guessed it) layers of melted pine resin, making her (you guessed it again) extremely streamlined and shiny.
The Sunhawk was dyed golden in color, hence her name. This makes her appear very shiny and graceful indeed. Her bow is a replica of a hunting hawk, making her
even more true to her name. Carved around her sleek sides is
a message in ancient sea otter runes. The characters are rather oddly shaped, just a bunch of twisty lines to anyone that doesn't know the language. Ther are very few sea otters who have learned the tongue, and I have the honor of being among them.
My mother taught me and her mother before her. I suppose they resemble Ancient Runes (you can see the complete alphabet in an encyclopedia) just a bit. The concept is the same.
The message is somewhat like the badger runes in the very heart of Salamandastron, where badger Lords go to seek courage and so on. Prophetic, as you might say. I copied them from an ancient dusty ole barkcloth scroll I found in our Holt Library...
Anyway, my point is that ancient otter runes completely encompass the top part of the hull. I must say it looks rather dashing, carved in gold.
The ole Sunhawk is very fast vessel, but she was designed only for rivers and streams, not the rough oceans. I've never heard of a canoe that has.
Well, tis green an' it's got liddle blue paddles an' it's made outa half a Rum barrel. It's gotta bench goin' cross tha middle t sit on an' tha's 'bout et. Oh, an' I calls it Fulla-Rum!