LETTER 'X'

TERMS	MEANING:
X-CRAFT	The official description of the British midget submarines of the Second World War. They were the conception of Admiral Sir Max Horton in 1941, who wanted to see the development of submarines capable of attacking German capital ships inside their harbours. He turned his ideas over to Commander C. E. Varley to develop, and the first two prototype boats were ready for trials early in 1942. The trials were successful, and orders were placed in May 1942 for the first six operational boats.
XEBEC	A small three-masted vessel of the 16th to 19th centuries used exclusively in the Mediterranean, similar in many respects to a polacre but with a distinctive hull which had a pronounced overhanging bow and stern. They were greatly favoured by Mediterranean nations as corsairs, and for this purpose were built with a narrow floor to achieve a higher speed than their victims, but with a considerable beam in order to enable them to carry an extensive sail plan. They had pronounced turtle decks to allow seas shipped when sailing to run down to the scuppers, a feature of their construction being the provision of gratings from the centre line of the ship to the sides, so that the crew could move easily and dry-shod while the water on the turtle deck ran down beneath the gratings. They had a rig which varied with the wind. In normal conditions they were square-rigged on the foremast and lateen-rigged on the main and mizen, but when the wind was fair extremely long square yards were hoisted on the main in place of the lateen yards and immense square sails were spread. When sailing close-hauled, a full lateen rig was substituted, but with over length yards. In strong winds the over length lateen yards were quickly replaced by normal length yards. When used as corsairs they carried a crew of 300-400 men and mounted up to twenty-four guns according to size. ‘By the very complicated and inconvenient method of working these vessels, it will be readily believed that one of their captains of Algiers acquainted the author, viz. That the crew of every Xebec has at least the labour of three square-rigged ships, wherein the standing sails are calculated to answer every situation of the wind’ (Falconer. Marine Dictionary, 1771).

TERMS

MEANING:

X-CRAFT

The official description of the British midget submarines of the Second World War. They were the conception of Admiral Sir Max Horton in 1941, who wanted to see the development of submarines capable of attacking German capital ships inside their harbours. He turned his ideas over to Commander C. E. Varley to develop, and the first two prototype boats were ready for trials early in 1942. The trials were successful, and orders were placed in May 1942 for the first six operational boats.

XEBEC

A small three-masted vessel of the 16th to 19th centuries used exclusively in the Mediterranean, similar in many respects to a polacre but with a distinctive hull which had a pronounced overhanging bow and stern. They were greatly favoured by Mediterranean nations as corsairs, and for this purpose were built with a narrow floor to achieve a higher speed than their victims, but with a considerable beam in order to enable them to carry an extensive sail plan. They had pronounced turtle decks to allow seas shipped when sailing to run down to the scuppers, a feature of their construction being the provision of gratings from the centre line of the ship to the sides, so that the crew could move easily and dry-shod while the water on the turtle deck ran down beneath the gratings. They had a rig which varied with the wind. In normal conditions they were square-rigged on the foremast and lateen-rigged on the main and mizen, but when the wind was fair extremely long square yards were hoisted on the main in place of the lateen yards and immense square sails were spread. When sailing close-hauled, a full lateen rig was substituted, but with over length yards. In strong winds the over length lateen yards were quickly replaced by normal length yards. When used as corsairs they carried a crew of 300-400 men and mounted up to twenty-four guns according to size. ‘By the very complicated and inconvenient method of working these vessels, it will be readily believed that one of their captains of Algiers acquainted the author, viz. That the crew of every Xebec has at least the labour of three square-rigged ships, wherein the standing sails are calculated to answer every situation of the wind’ (Falconer. Marine Dictionary, 1771).

LETTER ‘X’