Algerian Xebec Pirate and Man-‘O-War of the Eighteenth Century

Description

A xebec also spelled zebec, was a Mediterranean sailing ship that was used mostly for trading. It would have a long overhanging bowsprit and aft-set mizzen mast. The term can also refer to a small, fast vessel of the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries, used almost exclusively in the Mediterranean Sea. Xebecs were like galleys used by Algerian corsairs and Barbary pirates having both lateen sails and oars for propulsion. Early xebecs had two masts; later ones three. Xebecs featured a distinctive hull with pronounced overhanging bow and stern and rarely displaced more than 200 tons, making them slightly smaller and with slightly fewer guns than frigates of the period.