Forms: 6 brigandyn(e, -tyne, bryg-, 6–7 brigandine, 7 bregantine, 6– brigantine; also 6 bergantine, 6–7 vergantine. [16th c. brigandyn, a. F. brigandin (now brigantin), ad. It. brigantino (med.L. brigantinus found a. 1400), perh. in its orig. sense ‘skirmishing vessel’: cf. BRIGADE and BRIGAND. The Spanish is bergantin, OSp. vergantin: these forms also occur in Eng. writers translating, or compiling, from Spanish sources.]
† 1. orig. A small vessel equipped both for sailing and rowing, swifter and more easily manœuvred than larger ships, and hence employed for purposes of piracy, espionage, reconnoitring, etc., and as an attendant upon larger ships for protection, landing purposes, etc. Used by the seafaring nations of the Mediterranean. (In English only a historical term: Littré gives brigantin in this sense, but perh. it is only Hist. in French also.)
1525. Ld. Berners, Froiss., II. clxxi. [clxvii.] 498. To saue ourselfe, it is best we sende formost our lytell shyppes, called Brigandyns, and let vs tary in the mouthe of the hauyn.
1553. Eden, Treat. New Ind. (Arb.), 28. Commanded a foyst and two brigantines to be furnished … which being prepared in the yere of Christ 1492, Columbus departed. Ibid. (1555), Decades W. Ind., I. II. (Arb.), 70. Owre men … settinge forewarde with their ores the brigantine.
1580. Baret, Alv., B 1256. A brigantine or ship sent out to espie.
1611. Cotgr., Brigantin, a low, long, and swift Sea-vessel, bigger then the fregat, and lesse then a foist, and hauing some 12 or 13 oares on a side: we call it also a Brigantine.
1670. Lond. Gaz., No. 500/2. An excellent Bregantine of 28 Oars. Ibid. (1715), No. 5332/1. Brigantines of 44 Oars and carrying 150 Men each.
1769. Falconer, Dict. Marine (1789), Brigantin, a small light vessel, navigated by oars and sails: but differing extremely from the vessel known in England by the name of brig or brigantine.
1820. S. Rogers, Italy, Brides of V. (1839), 225. The youths were gone in a light brigantine.
β. 1555. Eden, Decades W. Ind. (Arb.), 108. Twoo smaule shyppes commenly cauled bergantines or brygantynes.
1648. Gage, West Ind., x. (1655), 40. Cortez thinking that place the most convenient to launch his Vergantines.
† 2. Applied (loosely) to various kinds of foreign sailing and rowing vessels, as the galleon, galliot, etc. Obs. exc. in poetic or rhetorical use.
1552. Huloet, Brigantyne, or litle Barke, or Shyppe.
1579. Fenton, Guicciard. (1618), 246. Reuictualled Pisa continually with a Gallion and other Brigandines.
1690. Lond. Gaz., No. 2603/1. 24 Galeots or Brigantines, 10 Felucca’s.
1748. Anson, Voy., I. iv. (ed. 4), 53. The next day but one we spoke with a Portuguese Brigantine.
1769. Falconer, Dict. Marine (1789), Brigantine, a term variously applied by the mariners of different European nations to a peculiar sort of vessel of their own marine.
1851. Longf., Gold. Leg., V. At Sea. A galley of the Grand Duca, That … Convoys those lazy brigantines Laden with wine and oil from Lucca.
3. A two-masted vessel, carrying square sails on her foremast, which is rigged like a ship’s foremast; her main or after-mast is the main-mast of a schooner, and in Falconer’s time, like that mast, carried a square topsail: but is now entirely fore-and-aft-rigged.
1695. Lond. Gaz., No. 3115/4. At His Majesty’s Yard at Chatham, [was launched] a Brigantine named the Swift.
1725. De Foe, Voy. round World (1840), 53. Resolving … to mast her not as a sloop but as a Brigantine.
1790. Beatson, Nav. & Mil. Mem., I. 280. The St. Pedro brigantine, belonging to and from Ferrol … was taken by the Ambuscade privateer of London.
1870. R. Anderson, Missions Amer. Bd., II. xxxv. 314. In 1856, a brigantine of one hundred and fifty-six tons … was built for the especial use of the Micronesia Mission.
Brigantine2 var. of BRIGANDINE, armor.
