Editing USS Wyvern (section)

== HMS Wyvern, Brigantine (1712-1736) ==


The earliest namesake of the USS Wyvern is found in the records of 18th century Earth. The first recorded use of the name belonged to the HMS Wyvern, a brigantine (the shortened expression is brig) vessel. This class of vessel is equipped both for sailing and rowing, swifter and more easily maneuvered than larger ships, and hence employed for purposes of piracy, espionage, reconnoitering, etc., and as an attendant upon larger ships for protection, landing purposes, etc. The earlier days the brig was a vessel with two masts square-rigged like a ship's fore- and main-masts, but carrying also on her main-mast a lower fore-and-aft sail with a gaff and boom. In later times, while still having only two masts, it carried square sails on her fore-mast, and, as to its after-mast, it was like that of the main-mast of a schooner, that is to say, fore-and-aft-rigged.

[[image:The_HMS_Wyvern_Brig_Restored.jpg|thumb|right|The HMS Wyvern- Restored 2405]]
In the 18th and the earlier part of the 19th centuries, a sloop-of-war was a small sailing warship (also known as one of the escort types) with a single gun deck that carried anything up to eighteen cannon. As the rating system covered all vessels with 20 guns and above, this meant that the term sloop-of-war actually encompassed all the unrated combat vessels including the very small gun-brigs and cutters. In technical terms, even the more specialized bomb vessels and fireships were classed as sloops-of-war, and in practice these were actually employed in the sloop role when not carrying out their specialized tasks.

The first three-masted sloops appeared during the 1740s, and from the mid-1750s most new sloops were completed with a ship (three-masted) rig. However, in the 1770s the two-masted sloop re-appeared in a new guise as the brig sloop. The successor to the former slow sloops, the brig sloops had two masts while the ship sloop continued to have three (since a brig is a two-masted, square-rigged vessel and a ship a three- or more-masted square-rigger, though invariably of 3 only in that period).

The Brigantine or Brig was a type of ship used in large numbers, both as a Merchant vessel and as a Naval Ship. It carried 16 guns and was rigged for speed, having both top gallant sails and royals. These ships were used by Navies of the World for scouting and reconnaissance duties. They were used to track down ships of an enemy navy. Many of the Brigs of the late 18th century could carry sweeps for maneuvering in still weather. In 1814 the British Navy had 71 brigs of various types carrying 10 to 16 guns.

'''General Characteristics:''' 
*Length: 110-ft
*Beam: 28-ft
*Draft: 16-ft
*Armament: 16 50-pound cannons
*Crew: 100 to 120

The Brig HMS Wyvern was a typical ship of the Brig class; she saw service from February 24, 1712 until her sinking in 1736, during a storm off the tip of South Africa. The ship was under the command of Captain John Blackthorn. In 2405 the wreckage of the HMS Wyvern was raised and restored. She is currently a living history museum piece.