Thesettee sail was alateen sail with the front corner cut off, giving it a quadrilateral shape. The settee sail requires a shorter yard than does the lateen, and both settee and lateen have shorter masts than square-rigged sails.
It can be traced back to navigation in theMediterranean Sea inlate antiquity; the oldest evidence is from a late5th-century ship in aRoman mosaic at Kelenderis inCilicia on the southern coast of Anatolia (nowAydıncık, Mersin).[1][2] It lasted well into the 20th century as a common sail on Arabdhows and on theGozo boat ofMalta.
Settees (orsaëtia) then were a sharp-prowed, single-decked merchant sailing vessel found in the Mediterranean (more in the Levant than in the Western Mediterranean), in the 18th and 19th centuries. The Spaniards also used them in the New World.[citation needed]
Settees had two lateen-rigged masts, likexebecs orgalleys, but carrying settee sails. They sailed well to windward and could sail downwind. Somepolaccas carried a settee sail, giving rise to the polacca-settee (or polacre-settee).
Between the 1880s and the 1960s,Gozo boats had a settee rig.[3]
.png)
 | This article about a type of ship or boat is astub. You can help Wikipedia byexpanding it. |
