Pinnaces and Their Uses
Identification of some pinnaces in contemporary historical documents is often difficult because there was no standardization of pinnace design, be the type 'small' or 'large'. The term seems to have been applied to variants of what may be called the full-rigged pinnace, rather than the alternative use of the term for a larger vessel's boat. Furthermore, several ship type and rig terms were used in the 17th century, but with very different definitions than applied today. Re-assessment of the design of some 17th century ships not designated "pinnace" sometimes uncovers the unexpected. For example, in the 17th century, brigantine referred to a two-masted sailing ship that was square-rigged on the foremast, and fore-and-aft rigged on the main mast. The designation 'brig' did not exist until the early 18th century, by which time vessels described as pinnaces had been well known for at least a century and a half. By the late 17th century, a brigantine in the Royal Navy was a small, square-rigged, two-masted ship, that could be rowed as well as sailed. 'Brig' referred to any ship that was square-rigged on both masts. When 'brig' and 'brigantine' were too widely applied, other possibilities for ship types were obscured. There is also the problem in sorting out what is meant by a 'barque' in the early 17th century. Note that the 'barque' or 'bark' rig as we understand it, was not known in the first half of the 17th century, and so exactly what is meant by a 'barque' is not clear. "When Governor Winthrop of the Massachusetts Bay Colony wrote of 'barques', he referred to ships that were both 'small' and 'large' and weighed 12 to 40 tons". thereby suggesting the two types of pinnace and their usual range in tonnage.
A second pinnace 'type' was often much larger than the first, and frequently carried enough cannon to be considered an (armed) merchantman, or fast and maneuverable small warship. "The pinnace is perhaps the most confusing of all the early seventeenth-century types of vessels. Pinnace was more of a use than a type name, for almost any vessel could have been a pinnace or tender to a larger one. Generally speaking, pinnaces were lightly built, single-decked, square-sterned vessels suitable for exploring, trading, and light naval duties. On equal lengths, pinnaces tended to be narrower than other types. Although primarily sailing vessels, many pinnaces carried sweeps for moving in calms or around harbors." The rigs of pinnaces included the single-masted fore-and-aft rig with staysail and sprit mainsail to the mizzenmast, and a square sprit-sail under the bowsprit. Open square-sterned pulling boats were also called pinnaces at least as early as 1626.
Often decked over, the 'small' pinnace was able to support a variety of rigs, each of which conferred maximum utility to specific missions such as fishing, cargo transport and storage, or open ocean voyaging. The mature 'small' pinnace design emerged as versatile with several different options and rigs possible. The expected popularity of the pinnace in the Massachusetts Bay Colony during the first half of the 17th century is documented. By the 1630s, historical records mention many ships trading or fishing with the Massachusetts Bay Colony, some of which were also built in-colony. Above all, the fishing trade had taken hold off the shores of New England, and was immediately successful. The pinnace may have been the preferred, multi-use small ship of the first decades of English settlement in 'Virginia'.
Read more about this topic: Virginia (pinnace)