Settee (sail)


The settee sail was a lateen sail with the front corner cut off, giving it a quadrilateral shape. It can be traced back to Greco-Roman navigation in the Mediterranean in late antiquity; the oldest evidence is from a late-5th-century AD ship mosaic at Kelenderis, Cilicia. It lasted well into the 20th century as a common sail on Arab dhows. The settee sail requires a shorter yard than does the lateen, and both settee and lateen have shorter masts than square-rigged sails.
with two settee sails
Settees then were a sharp-prowed, single-decked merchant sailing vessel found in the Mediterranean, in the 18th and 19th centuries. The Spaniards also used them in the New World.
Settees had two lateen-rigged masts, like xebecs or galleys, but carrying settee sails. They sailed well to windward and could sail downwind. Some polaccas carried a settee sail, giving rise to the polacca-settee.
Between the 1880s and the 1960s, Gozo boats had a settee rig.