A mistico was a large sailing coaster used in the Mediterranean in the 18th and 19th centuries. Misticos were decked vessels with long, low hulls and had two masts amidships that carried two

lateen A lateen (from French ''latine'', meaning "Latin") or latin-rig is a triangular sail set on a long Yard (sailing) , yard mounted at an angle on the mast (sailing) , mast, and running in a fore-and-aft direction. The Settee (sail), settee can be ...

or settee sails and a

jib A jib is a triangular sail that sets ahead of the foremast of a sailing vessel. Its forward corner (tack) is fixed to the bowsprit, to the bows, or to the deck between the bowsprit and the foremost mast. Jibs and spinnakers are the two main ty ...

. They ranged in size from 40 to 80 tons ( bm), and had crews of five to nine men. They were popular with

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

pirates Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence by ship or boat-borne attackers upon another ship or a coastal area, typically with the goal of stealing cargo and valuable goods, or taking hostages. Those who conduct acts of piracy are call ...

in the Aegean and resembled the

felucca A felucca is a traditional wooden sailing boat with a single sail used in the Mediterranean, including around Malta and Tunisia. However, in Egypt, Iraq and Sudan (particularly along the Nile and in the Sudanese protected areas of the Red Sea), ...

. And the

xebec A xebec ( or ), also spelled zebec, was a Mediterranean sailing ship that originated in the barbary states (Algeria), it was used mostly for trading. Xebecs had a long overhanging bowsprit and aft-set mizzen mast. The term can also refer to a ...

. *On 25 October 1806, the Spanish privateer ''mistico'' ''Generalísimo'', of four guns and 70 men, captured HM gunboat ''Hannah'', of two guns and 28 men, in the Straits of Gibraltar. *In 1825–26 was the lead vessel of a small squadron engaged in anti-piracy operations in the

Archipelago An archipelago ( ), sometimes called an island group or island chain, is a chain, cluster, or collection of islands. An archipelago may be in an ocean, a sea, or a smaller body of water. Example archipelagos include the Aegean Islands (the o ...

, at Alexandria, and around the coasts of Syria. On 27 July 1826 ''Cambrian''s boats captured a pirate bombard and burnt a ''mistico'' on the

Cycladic The CYCLADES computer network () was a French research network created in the early 1970s. It was one of the pioneering networks experimenting with the concept of packet switching and, unlike the ARPANET, was explicitly designed to facilitate in ...

island of

Tinos Tinos ( ) is a Greek island situated in the Aegean Sea. It forms part of the Cyclades archipelago. The closest islands are Andros, Delos, and Mykonos. It has a land area of and a 2021 census population of 8,934 inhabitants. Tinos is famous amo ...

Citations

References

*Folkard, Henry Coleman (2012) ''The Sailing Boat: A Treatise on English and Foreign Boats and Yachts''. (Books on Demand) *Sala, George Augustus, and Edmund Hodgson Yates (1876) ''Temple bar''. (Ward and Lock).

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