Tender ship. Tender (sailing ship)

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Part II
Tender (boat) (The Cutter)

Single-masted vessel, mainly with oblique sail rig, but with a straight topsail and a lower square sail.
... Oblique sailing equipment allows the ship to sail closer to a steep sidewind than ships with straight rigging.
... Deep draft for such a small boat.
... Heavily armed for a ship of its size.
... For military use only

fig .: sailboat tender

The tender originated in Britain in the second quarter of the 18th century. Howard Chapel, in his book In Search of Speed ​​Under Sail, writes, "The British tender was most likely created before 1727, since the image of the Harwich tender ship is dated to this time." The tender originated from a mizzen yacht, which was a single-masted vessel with shallow draft, gaff rigging and a triangular staysail, a long bowsprit from which the jib could be extended. Exclusively due to its shallow draft, this vessel easily sailed in shallow water, the mizzen yacht had scissors, devices attached to each side so that they could be lowered down like a keel in order to avoid excessive drift of the ship when sailing under the wind. In England, where the water is not as shallow as in Holland, an exact copy was built, but with a deeper draft, so that there was no scuttle. The hull was also widened to provide more stability in the rough waters of the English Channel. The description of the word "tender", originally applied to the shape of the hull, was more closely associated with the city of Folkestone in southeastern Kent near Dover, where the blueprints were believed to have been made, while the fittings remained the same as in the mizzen -yacht. The initial characteristic of the tender was its lightweight, sheathed hull. Later, ships appeared with the name "caravel" or sheathed at the top within the lower frames and caravels at the top. "Sheathed" means that the sheathing boards of the hull were overlapped. The "caravel" construction means that the joint was made "butt". The frames were thick logs that were stacked around the ship along the line of each of the decks. They were used to provide secure anchor anchorage for the heavy bolts that supported the deck. The lower frames would be just above the waterline. A few years later, straight sails were added over the gaffer mainsail to allow for greater speed, and the vessel was fitted with an additional jib from the bowsprit.

Despite the fact that the tender looks a bit like a sloop, it can still be easily recognized. The tender had a length to width ratio of approximately 2.5: 1, while the sloop was more suitable for a ship and was approximately 3.5: 1. The tender lines were more graceful than the sloop, and it carried a smaller freeboard, which made it possible to compress the sails more. But it was the mast and the rigging of the tender that made it possible to clearly distinguish it from the sloop. The tender had a single topmast and a separate topmast, while the sloop had separate topmails. The sloop also had a steeply curved fixed bowsprit at the centerline where the tender had an almost horizontal bowsprit attached to one side of the bowsprit head, which was on the inside of the vessel. The lower tender mast was also longer in relation to the total height allowed for the larger haffle grotto... The sloop usually had only one jib, while the tender had two or more. And finally a sloop, mainly a sloop Bermuda, had a more significant angle of inclination of the mast, and the mast of the tender was located more vertically. And what does all this mean? And the fact that the tender was built "for speed."

These new Folkestone tenders immediately became the favorites of smugglers due to their speed, agility and low crew requirements, and by the mid-1740s the term "smuggling tender" had stuck to them. Smuggling tenders became widespread so quickly that the British government accepted tenders to the Customs Service in 1744 to combat smugglers and forbade any trade tender to carry spars higher than those on the lucrative ships. This was done so that no smuggler could escape the search. The tenders were so good at collecting customs duties that in 1745 the British Admiralty accepted the Folkestone Tenders to serve as coastal scouts, coastal cruisers and advice ships. The fleet of tenders accepted for service was finally replenished with purchased ships in 1762, and by October 1764 it had already made 38 tenders according to the registers of the Navy.

Previously hired by the Customs Service, the tenders had a crew of no more than thirty people and had on board from six to eight guns and several swivels. One of the first ships to be put at the disposal of the Navy was the Fly, purchased in 1763. It was 52 feet long, 21 feet wide and 8 feet deep, and weighed only 79 tons. On board it was possible to place 12 cannons, probably three pounds, and equip them with eight holes for long oars on each side. Also in 1763, the British Naval Forces began to design their own tenders. Four were built at the Plymouth shipyards, and three more by agreement at the Folkestone and Broadstairs shipyards. All ships built were 48 to 55 feet in length and weighed 75 to 85 tons, carrying four to six cannons on board.

In the meantime, qualities that made smugglers and navies love the tender have not escaped attention in foreign ports. In 1747, the Admiralty of Amsterdam ordered the purchase of two tenders in England, and paid for the construction of two more in Holland by agreement. In 1756, a shipbuilder in Dunkirk personally assembled a small padded tender for the Coast Guard. Called "Tiercelet", the tender was nothing more remarkable, except that it could carry six four-pound cannons on board. The French naval forces did not want to dispose of the tender design until 1770 when an order was placed for eight tenders in Dunkirk and Bordeaux. One of them, "La Puce", represented the other seven. It was 48 feet long, 19 feet wide and 7 feet deep, and weighed 67 tons. It carried 6 three-pound cannons, ten swivels and was equipped with nine holes for long oars on each side. Chapman, a great Swedish architect, noticed the advantages and designed a lighter model of the British tender "Fly", and included the sketches in 1765 in his work called "Architectura Navalis Mercatoria".

For whatever reason, but the personnel of the naval forces throughout history have never been content with little. And this fact was clearly illustrated by the end of the 18th century. British naval tenders of the 1770s were 70 feet long and weighed about 180 tons. They could carry 12 four-pound cannons on board, and were strong enough to be considered war sloops for some time in the navy. The sad thing was that the sails and rigging of single-masted ships were extremely difficult to manage. Fortunately, the British naval designers have finally come to their senses and returned to the production of what has already "shown itself". This time the French went farthest. In 1779 they built the Leverette. The vessel was 86 feet long, 30 wide, had a displacement of 9 feet, and weighed 300 tons. It carried 18 six-pound cannons, not counting the swivels. However, the captains of such "machines" complained so loudly to their superiors that in 1781 they had to refuse such tenders. The case was won by the Danes, as those who designed the largest tender in existence, serving in the navy. The Scheepvarrt Museum in Amsterdam contains two copies of tender sketches, 92 feet long, 30 feet wide, 12 feet in displacement and weighing 400 tons. According to J. Vlaming's plans, it could accommodate 24 six-pound cannons. However, it is not known whether at least one of these "monsters" was built.

Although leaving in the past the craving for the reproduction of the "monsters" of the 1770s, naval designers still continued to "chase" size. Eventually, their growing size dictated that the enormous sailing area required to sail on par with the smugglers' ships had to be split into two masts. Some tenders were already equipped with small mizzen stepped for long-distance tacks and by 1780 these large tenders gave impetus to the construction of two masts with gaff sails on both masts and an additional square sail on the foremast, and topsails on both. These two-masted tenders were immediately liked by Commercial Transportation Services, as they could be well enough armed to repel the smuggling ships. The tender hull was still too distinctive, so the addition of a second mast gave it the title of tender brig. One of these ships, the Cameleon, was purchased in 1781. The vessel was 85 feet long, 30 feet wide, had a displacement of 9 feet and weighed 268 tons. The ship was armed with 16 six-pound cannons. On August 14, at about 9 am, the Cameleon, under the command of William O'Brien Drury, with 125 crew souls, stumbled upon a huge Dutch lugger armed with 18 cannons and 20 swivels. Close combat was fought for half an hour, when suddenly, quite suddenly, the lugger exploded. The shock was so obvious that at the Cameleon tender people were simply knocked off their feet, and when the smoke cleared, it was clear that the topsails of the tender were engulfed in fire, and they had to be ripped off the yards in order to save the ship. Human remains and the mutilated corpses of the Dutch were scattered throughout the deck and rigging. Captain Drury sent lifeboats in search of those from the team who could miraculously escape, but the miracle did not happen. There were 12 wounded on the Cameleon. By 1814, 53 tenders were listed in the registers of the Naval Forces. The identification of tenders with speed was so strong that eventually "tender building" over time for seafarers around the world came to mean "thin line" and "fast."

In his book A History of the British Navy 1793-1827, William James described the following event, which took place in 1803. Nationalities and associations are indicated in brackets for ease of understanding:
“On October 31 at 9:00 am, while the [British] frigate Leda, escorted by the war sloops Lark and Harpy, left Etaples [France] and fought desperately against a strong east-southeast wind, trying to shore, a huge [French] brig with cannons on board (12 long 24-pounders, as they said), with six schooners and sloops under their cover, were leaving the port at the same time. Captain Honiman [frigate "Leda"] immediately signaled the sloops "Harpy" and "Lark" to go in pursuit. However, at almost the same time the British, hired by the tender "Admiral-Mitchell", with 12 twelve-pound cannons and 12 carronades, with 35 sailors on board, under the command of Lieutenant Alexander Shippard, near Boulogne, the port to which the ships were sailing , at 10 am ordered a brig with guns to start hostilities where the artillery of the Portet ship was stationed. After two and a half hours of battle, the tender was already driving a brig with guns and one of the sloops to the shore [where they crashed].
The mast and beguin-ray of the "Admiral-Mitchell" tender were damaged in several places by the frame that fell on board, and its sails and rigging were badly cut by buckshot: the tender also had one of the carronades worn out and the hull was hit by cannons in several places. Fortunately, however, the damage to the tender was not too great: two seriously wounded and just as lightly. The strong wind from the coast did not allow the small British squadron to prove themselves in battle at all, this incident, of course, did credit to Lieutenant Shippard, as well as the officers and team of the Admiral-Mitchell tender. "
Article written by Lawrence D. Davis (Karmajen)

COMPARABLE SHIPS

Captains who like the sailing characteristics of the tenders and who would adopt lighter weapons in order to get a shallow draft will of course prefer the sloop.
The tender is the most powerful type of single-masted vessel, so captains who want to place as many guns on the ship as possible should look for a completely different vehicle:

A less armed, but more alike, side-rigged vessel might be a large schooner.
... A more armed and risky three-masted vessel with an oblique sailing rig may be the shebeka - the most preferred vessel for the villains.
... A properly armed and armored military two-masted vessel is a step forward in terms of size and power, but their straight sailing gear will be a significant change for anyone accustomed to flexible tender rigs.

TACTICS

Like the piranha, the tender also has a horribly disproportionate bite. This trait, combined with speed and agility, makes the ship exceptional for its purpose - pursuing villains or completing solo missions.

Military or pirate, the tender can easily defeat both the sloop and the schooner. With up to 12 cannons on board and several dozen crew members, the tender even instills fear in large merchant ships, for example, kechs and flutes.

The biggest problem the captain of the tender faces is how to grab smaller-than-ship prey. Most of the weaker "targets" are also skew-rigged ships, which means they can also sail a course close to the direction of the wind. The speed and maneuverability will be almost the same, moreover, smaller vessels have the ability to flee on the shallows, where the already deep draft of the tenders does not allow to keep up with them. All these factors indicate that the captain of the tender must be a cunning and patient person, in order "like a cat to catch its mouse." The wise captain of the tender will prefer to know in detail all the bays and shoals of the island in order to find such a place for an ambush from which no victim can escape.

The tender is in an enviable position, since it can surpass everything that could only harm it in battle - it is this feature that puts a ban on the use of such ships for any other purpose, except for the military. However, like all vessels, tenders have their own limitations. Thanks to its short hull and large sail area, the tender can reach impressive speed in light winds, and its deep draft allows it to float firmly on the water, so it can easily sail on slightly rough seas. But, like all small boats, even a tender with good seaworthiness can meet with troubles in bad weather.

In general, the tender is a light warship, but still, a military one. Whether it's a smuggler or a military officer, no one should underestimate the strength and toughness of the tender, especially under the command of a seasoned captain.

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The sailing rig of the gaff tender consists of a quadrangular sail of the mainsail (trisel mainsail), a staysail, one or more jibs and an upper triangular sail (topsail). At the beginning of the 20th century, the tender was described as a ship with two or three head sails. A secondary feature, depending on the number of head sails, was the location of the mast: in the region of 1/3 - 1/2 of the length along the design waterline (CWL) from the bow. The location of the mast and the number of headsails determined the type of bowsprit used. Tenders often had a retractable bowsprit, sloops only a permanent one.

Further, these insignificant differences between the tender and the sloop began to disappear. At first, the extendable bowsprit went out of fashion, and by the 30s of the 20th century, bowsprites on single-mast yachts were generally used less and less. The spread of glued spars led to an increase in the height of the masts, and the need to compensate for the insufficient height of the mast with a large number of developed head sails on the bowsprit disappeared. Tenders with three headsails have since become almost a museum rarity.

The tender is, first of all, one of the types of gaff weapons. Bermuda tenders existed for a very short time, and they appeared due to the preservation of traditional head sails during the transition from gaff weapons to Bermuda. The tacking qualities of the tender are somewhat lower than that of the sloop. When, with the improvement of the spars and standing rigging, it became possible to reliably hold the mast in the longitudinal direction with just one headstock from the bow, the Bermuda tenders practically disappeared.

In the era of the sailing fleet, a tender was called a single-mast auxiliary vessel, with a displacement of 50-60 tons, armed with 10-12 small-caliber cannons.

Modern tenders often have bermuda sailing rig: instead of a trisaille mainsail and a topsail, one large triangular sail is used - the Bermuda mainsail.