'mugian

The Sailor's Word-Book

, or bermudian.


A boat special to the Bermuda Islands, usually decked, with the exception of a hatch; from two to twenty tons burden; it is short, of good beam, and great draft of water abaft, the stem and keel forming a curved line. It carries an immense quantity of iron, or even lead, ballast. Besides a long main and short jib-boom, it has a long, tapering, raking mast, stepped just over the fore-foot, generally unsupported by shrouds or stays; on it a jib-headed main-sail is hoisted to a height of twice, and sometimes three times, the length of the keel. This sail is triangular, stretched at its foot by a long boom. The only other sail is a small fore-sail or jib. They claim to be the fastest craft in the world for working to windward in smooth water, it being recorded of one that she made five miles dead to windward in the hour during a race; and though they may be laid over until they fill with water, they will not capsize.