Daily entries from the 17th century London diary
If you would like to write a summary for this topic, email phil [at] gyford [dot] com
Annotations
-
A “bezaan” is a type of sail that is attached to the mast at one end, with a small wooden “gaffel” at the top and a longer “giek” at the bottom.
It is called “gaff-rigged” in english, which shows these terms were quite international.The “Mary”, which was presented by the Dutch East India Compagny to Charles the same year, had “square rigging”.
The rigging of modern sail yachts looks more like the Bezan.
There’s an interesting list of Charles Yachts at http://www2.friend.ly.net/~dadadata/kemp/dictWXYZ.html
-
Bezan v Jamie.
From Antonia Fraser…
The Royal brothers took to racing their craft against each other with zest…There was a race between the dutch-built Bezan and the King’s yacht Jamie (named for Monmouth), which the former easily won.
-
BEZAAN
The Bezaan was a Dutch pleasure yacht built in 1630 and presented to King Charles II by the Dutch East India Company. The Bezaan was about 15 feet long with a single mast and carried a crew of two, and was the precursor of modern leisure yachts. http://www.probertencyclopaedia.com/cgi-bin/res.pl?keyword=Bezaan&offset=0