Such vessels were first used by the Dutch in the 16th or 17th century (but may not have been called that at the time – see etymology, below). Originally schooners were gaff-rigged, but modern schooners may be Bermuda-rigged. Schooners were further developed in North America from the early 18th century, and came into extensive use in New England.[1] The most common type of schooners, with two-masts, were popular in trades that required speed and windward ability, such as slaving, privateering, and blockade running. They were also traditional fishing boats, used for offshore fishing.[2] In the Chesapeake Bay area several distinctive schooner types evolved, including the Baltimore clipper and the pungy. Schooners were popular on both sides of the Atlantic in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, but in Europe they gradually gave way to the cutte"
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Photograph of old post card courtesy of Vintage Cape Breton Photos.com
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