Mistico (ship type)
Mistico or Mystiko ( Greek Μύστικο = secret) or Mistique or Mystique was a type of ship . It was a coastal freighter that was only used in the Mediterranean .
description
The Mistico was developed in Byzantine times . The name, which means secret, indicates that the ships often carried important people or secret messages. They were around 20 to 30 m long and had a load capacity of 40 to 100 t. The length to width ratio was about 6: 1 to 7: 1. The covered hull was low and often had a half-deck at the stern, recesses for 18 to 36 oars and possibly cannon ports . The Mistico had two to three masts , with the stern mast often only half as high as the fore and main mast . The masts carrying lateen without or with Bonnet (Schrägrah) or Rahsegel or combinations of different rigging. Together they always had two foresail sails .
In the 18th and 19th centuries, Misticos were used as coastal freighters, mainly in Spain and North Africa. Because of its speed, the Mistico was also popular with pirates . Also France and the Greek freedom fighters put an armed Misticos. A variant of the Mistico is the Schebeck .
Web links
literature
- Dudszus, Alfred: The big book of ship types , Augsburg 1995, pp. 185–186
- William Henry Giles Kingston : The Boy's Own Book of Boats. , London 1861, p. 168 ( online )
- Henry Coleman Folkard: The sailing boat: a description of English and foreign boats. , London 1853, p. 81 ( online )