_A British warship of 1654. This ship is an excellent example of the ships that were in use just before the jib began to put in its appearance. The lateen sail on the mizzenmast is similar to the one used on the caravels, but both the rigging and the hull are greatly refined as compared with the ships of the time of Columbus._ ] This growth, of course, was slow. The life of a single sailor was not enough to see the general acceptance of more than one or two of these steps, for seamen are conservative when it comes to changes in their ships, and are not given to the rapid acceptance of revolutionary improvements. But by comparison with the slow development of the preceding thousand years changes were coming with almost breathless speed. It was during this period that another important improvement was introduced. I have explained how, on cruder ships, it was the custom, when more sail area was needed, to lace a separate strip of cloth to the foot of the great square sail. This extra piece of sail was called the “bonnet” and sometimes another similar piece called the “drabbler” was laced to the foot of the bonnet. If the wind increased until less sail was desired these two extra sections of the sail were unlaced and the sail area was reduced by that much. In earlier times the sail was sometimes puckered up by passing lines over the spar and tying them so as to make the sail into a bundle more or less loosely tied, depending on how much or how little the sail area was to be reduced. But now came the introduction of “reef points” which, down to the present day, are still the accepted method of reducing sail. Reef points are short pieces of rope passing through the sail. The ends are allowed to hang free on opposite sides of the canvas. On square sails there are two or three rows of these running across the upper part of the sail. When the captain orders sail reduced the men go into the rigging, lie out along the yard supporting the sail to be reefed and pulling the sail up until they reach the first row of reef points, proceed to tie the two ends of the points together over the top of the sail. This ties a part of the sail into a small space, reducing by that much the area spread to the wind. This great improvement, together with the new arrangement of sails, began to make sailing ships into structures that, more or less, were reaching out toward the perfection that led ultimately to such speed and ease of handling as never before was thought possible. [Illustration: A 16TH-CENTURY DUTCH BOAT _It was on boats of this type that the jib seems first to have been used. To-day in Holland one sees a similar boat, called a schuyl, which is almost identical with this, except that it utilizes a curved gaff at the top of the mainsail._ ]