Polacca

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A polacca (or polacre) is a type of seventeenth- to nineteenth-century sailing vessel, similar to the xebec. The name is the feminine of "Polish" in the Italian language. The polacca was frequently seen in the . It had two or three single-pole masts, the three-masted vessels often with a lateen hoisted on the foremast (which was slanted forward to accommodate the large lateen yard) and a gaff or lateen on the mizzen mast. The mainmast was square-rigged after the European style. Special polaccas were used by Murat Reis, whose ships had lateen sails in front and fore-and-aft rig behind.

Some polacca pictures show what appears to be a ship-rigged vessel (sometimes with a lateen on the mizzen) with a galley-like hull and single-pole masts. Thus, the term "polacca" seems to refer primarily to the masting and possibly the hull type as opposed to the type of rig used for the sails. Two-masted polaccas were referred to as brig-polaccas with square sails on both masts. Three-masted polaccas were called ship-polaccas or polacca-settees.^[1]

Captain Jack Aubrey in HMS Sophie captures a French polacre laden with corn and general merchandise in Patrick O'Brian's first Aubrey-Maturin novel, Master and Commander (1969).

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  Polacca of Murat Reis the Younger
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  The Graeco-Ottoman polacre San Nicolo, by Antoine Roux
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  The Graeco-Ottoman polacre Bella Aurora , by Antoine Roux

• Polacras (Spanish)