Generally there was a flagpole attached to the mast. Sometime in the 1400s they started adding a sail to that flagpole. The flagpole grew in size until it was a smaller version of a mast -- so they started calling it a topmast. The square sail hung from that second mast was called a topsail -- fore topsail, main topsail, mizzen topsail, etc. By the end of the 1600s the topsails had grown so large that they were the main driving sails of a square rigger. The topsails -- like the courses -- were so big that they were unwieldy. So in the middle of the 19th century -- you guessed it -- they split the topsails on two spars. The topmast now had two sails on it -- a lower topsail and an upper topsail. (Incidently -- that is how the classic tea clippers, like the Cutty Sark were rigged. Compare and contrast to the single large topsail of the Constitution.)
Now we have four sails on two masts: lower and upper courses on the mast (or lower mast) and lower and upper topsails on the topmast.
Remember that flagpole they hung off the mast -- the one that grew into the topmast? Well, they still needed flagpoles, so they attached it to the top of the topmast. And -- you guessed it -- before too long they began hanging an extra small sail on it. That flagpole grew into a third section of mast, above the topmast. This mast was called the topgallant mast -- probably because it made such a brave sight. That is your topgallant sail. I don't think they split this into a lower and upper topgallant sail. It really never grew large enough in the 19th century. That might have started happening in the 20th century -- when steel masts replaced wooden, but for now, let's stay in the 19th century.
So, by the middle of the 1600s big ships have three sails on three mast sections: a course on the lower mast, a topsail on the topmast and a topgallant on the topgallant mast. Let's leave it there for the time being, and talk about royal sails.
After the topgallant got to be pretty standard shipwrights started making the topgallant mast taller. After a while captains began looking at the space above the topgallant yard, and wondered -- if just maybe -- they could squeeze out a little extra speed by adding one more sail above this. These were naval captains at first. Merchant ships of the 1600s and early 1700s were less concerned with speed than carrying capacity. Besides, more sails means more crews. But warships (and privateers, et al) had large crews. And that extra quarter knot might mean the difference between prize money and getting nothing in a stern chase. So they added a new squaresail above the topgallant.
Initially this sail was on the topgallant yard. So they called it an upper topgallant, right?
WRONG. (I told you this was confusing.) The upper and lower terminology came about in the 19th century. Back when they started adding this fourth sail each sail had an individual name -- so this sail gained the name "royal" sail. Most likely this was because -- at least initially -- only royal ships, that is to say warships belonging to a nation, had them. Either that or their appearance was regal. At any rate -- they were called royals.
By the middle of the 18th century these sails had gotten so large that on some very large warships, a fourth mast section -- the royal mast -- was added to accommodate them. First-rate ships-of-the-line and large frigates had royal masts, so they had true royal sails. But whether set on the topgallant or royal mast, the fourth sail was called a royal.
Well and good. But in the 19th century -- really for the first time -- speed became important to large merchant ships. That was the era of the packet and the clipper. But merchantmen -- unlike warships -- want the minimum crew possible. So that was when we started getting the split sails that I was talking about earlier. So, something like the Flying Cloud would have four masts: a lower mast with a upper and lower course, a topmast with an upper and lower topsail, a topgallant mast with a topgallant sail, and a royal mast with a royal sail. (Maybe they split topgallants, but I don't think so. Not yet.)
But we have some space above the royal sail on that royal mast. If you are bully skipper -- the kind that locks the rigging so the sails cannot be shortened -- you put a new, smaller squaresail above the royal -- that is the skysail. Now if you have a little extra space you might be able to squeeze another small piece of cloth above that -- the moonsail or hope-in-heaven, or whatever. But these were always set flying -- that is to say they were attached to the mast ad hoc, rather than being permanent fixtures.
Sometime they added these sails to ships without split courses and topsails -- warships during the War of 1812 might have done this. So, you have to look at the masts, and see how the sails attach to each mast to get their actual (as opposed to ship modelers') name.
Let me throw in one more confusion factor. By the end of the 19th century, the great forests were on there way to oblivion. Steel replace wood in masts. But a steel mast can be made longer than a wooden mast -- much longer. So a modern, steel-hulled, steel-masted square-rigger does not have four separate mast sections. It has one or two. But mariners are addicted to tradition. (You think you would be traveling on a square-rigger -- in the 21st century -- if you were not?) So, they would arbitrarily divide a single-section of steel mast into the traditional names. The lower part of the lowest mast would be called the lower mast, with the upper part being the topmast -- or even the topmast and the topgallant (assuming you had a one-piece mast). The upper section would be arbitrarily divided into the topgallant and royal mast. The dividing point might just be a paint ring. So on those ships you might just have four sails (lower and upper course and lower an upper topsail) on the bottom section and five (lower and upper topgallant, royal, skysail, sail-of-sails) on the upper section of mast. Or maybe they call them course, topsail, topgallant sail, royal, skysail, moonsail, sail-of-sails and hope-in-heaven -- because the old reason for refering to upper and lower sails has vanished.
The complicating factor is if you show your model of the Flying Cloud or Great Republic to someone who had trained on the Alexander von Humboldt, he is as likely to give you the modern name for the sails as the historical names.
As I said initially -- this can be confusing.
{Mark Lardas}
It's not a large thing, the name difference, but using the term 'topgallant
royal' immediately tells you a lot about the rig and sparring of the vessel.
{Joel. B. Sanborn}
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