In sailing, a snow, snaw or snauw is a square-rigged vessel with two masts, complemented by a snow- or trysail-mast stepped immediately abaft (behind) the main mast. [1] The word 'snow' comes from 'snauw', which is an old Dutch word for beak, a reference to the characteristic sharp bow of the vessel. [1] .

USS Niagara, commonly called the U.S. Brig Niagara or the Flagship Niagara, is a wooden-hulled snow-brig that served as the relief flagship for Oliver Hazard Perry in the Battle of Lake Erie during the War of 1812.

A brig is a type of sailing vessel defined by its rig: two masts which are both square-rigged. Brigs originated in the second half of the 18th century and were a common type of smaller merchant vessel or warship from then until the latter part of the 19th century.

On a snow, in contrast to the brig where the gaff and boom are attached directly to the main mast, the gaff and, in later times, the boom were attached to the snow-mast. The use of this characteristic snow mast offered several advantages over …

The snow brig was a common rigging for minor ships during the entire 18th century. One of the earliest snow brigs was “Mjöhunden”, built for the Swedish Navy by Charles Sheldon in 1698 and sunk in battle off Arkangelsk in 1701.

The U.S. Brig Niagara is a two-masted, square-rigged sailing vessel classified as a Snow Brig. Her 1813 wartime crew would have totaled 155 men and boys – organized into two “watch sections” (port and starboard).

A snow or snaw is a sailing vessel. A type of brig often referred to as a snow-brig, the snow was typically a merchant vessel, but was a common form of sailing rig for small two-masted sloops, especially during the first half of the eighteenth century.

Mar 6, 2025 · An HERMAPHRODITE is a vessel so constructed as to be, occasionally, a snow, and sometimes a brig. It has therefore two main-sails; a boom main-sail when a brig, and a square main-sail when a snow; and a main-topsail larger than the fore-topsail.

May 6, 2024 · The two rigs developed from different directions, the brig evolving from the generally smaller brigantine, and the much older snow evolving from the larger three-masted ship. The most visible difference between the brig and the snow is the latter's "snow-mast", stepped directly behind the main mast.

Nov 3, 2009 · There is very little difference between a Brig and a Snow. The spanker (the fore and aft sail behind the lower part of the mainmast) is set on a separate pole running behind, and parallel to, the lower mast on a Snow.