Matt's Model Boats

Humber sloop, a sailing barge of Lincolnshire and Yorkshire, seen from the starboard side.  Humber sloops were merchant vessels that traded along the inland waterways of Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire as well as the East Coast of England. These flat-bottomed barges, able to beach on the sandbanks and mudflats at low tide, were designed to operate in the shallow waters of the Humber Estuary as well as the tidal sections of its tributaries. A typical sloop was equipped with a single mast, a triangular headsail, a quadrilateral mainsail, a pair of leeboards and a stern-mounted rudder that was steered by a tiller. Advances in metallurgy, occurring during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, made it possible to construct these vessels from iron while steel became the favoured building material at the turn of the twentieth century. Anti-fouling paint, containing toxic biocides such as black copper(II) oxide or red lead(II,IV) oxide, was used to dis...

Arthur Young, on page 151 of  Nautical Dictionary , describes flats as lighters that are capable of navigating the inland waterways. It is reported that the flats which operated along the River Mersey, that were also known as Mersey flats, were sloop-rigged vessels. Young, on page 214, describes a jigger as a small sail that projects from the stern of a boat. It is claimed that the jigger-sail, which is reported to have been attached to a mast and boom, was sometimes installed on fore-and-aft rigged vessels. A. Ansted, on pages 10 and 11 of  A Dictionary of Sea Terms , describes barges as flat-bottomed vessels that can be arranged into three categories. Different types of barge, some of which are reported to have been equipped with sails, are claimed to have operated on the inland waterways and out at sea. Lighters and hoys, in some instances, are reported to have been classified as barges. It is claimed that the typical sailing barge was equipped with a sprit-sail, a main-sai...