Sloop, on the right (Alford 1990:34)
Sloops were a type of larger sailing vessels that were designed with longer voyages in mind. Sloops were single-mast vessels with a gaff sail as the mainsail and were also fore and aft rigged as well with headsails. These vessels also varied tremendously in size with the average size being between 20 and 40 tons, but some designed for longer trade were over 50 tons and smaller ones only being 5 tons. Sloops, and later, schooners, were excellent vessels in North Carolina as they had a shallow draft which allowed merchants and sailors to easily travel through the narrow and shallow inlets that penetrate the Outer Banks (Alford 1990:33; Dodds 2009:66)
Compared to the schooner, which slowly faded out the sloop, the sloop needed more sailors due to the rigging setup. The sloop also saw issues arise from its single mast since it was more unstable in varied weather conditions. However the sloop had one positive over the schooner as it was able to travel faster and sail smoother when the wind was dead astern (Dodds 2009:67)
Sloops, like schooners, were primarily used to import manufactured goods to the colony and export the colony’s agricultural goods. Between 1693 to the 1750s, sloops were the most commonly produced vessel in North Carolina. The peak of this production was in the 1740s when 49% of all vessels constructed in North Carolina were sloops (Dodds 2009:61).
By Caleb O’Brien