xebec

So far, I haven't a clue. :-)

Yeah...thanks... I'm trying very hard not to give away plot points and stuff in them, in case anyone hasn't read them and wants to.

I'm loving these O'Brian quotes, chained_bear. :-)

"'Mr Powell and Mr Comfrey are to go straight to Malta in that storeship over there.'

"'The xebec, or the polacre?'

'The vessel to the right,' said Graham somewhat testily. 'The vessel that is so busy, with sailors creeping up the masts.'"
--Patrick O'Brian, The Ionian Mission, 80

A small, three-masted vessel of the Mediterranean, formerly much used by corsairs, now employed to some extent in commerce. Also spelled chebeck, zebec, and zebeck.