the.com/xebec
the sailing ship that made the Mediterranean a pirate's personal playground
means A small, fast three-masted sailing ship with both square and triangular (lateen) sails, once common in the Mediterranean and favored by traders, navies, and corsairs alike.
from Borrowed into English in the 18th century, the word traveled a crooked sea route: from French 'chebec', via Spanish 'jabeque' or Catalan 'xabec', ultimately from Arabic 'shabbāk' — a name tied to fishing and nets. The Mediterranean spelling shuffled the same ship through several tongues before English landed on the eye-catching 'x'.
- triple threat
- Used oars and sails for any wind condition
- corsair favorite
- Barbary pirates loved its speed and shallow draft
- scrabble gold
- Crams x, b, and c into five letters
- lateen rigged
- Triangular sails let it sail closer to wind
- navy answer
- Spain built warship xebecs to hunt the raiders
hms surprise — british naval xebec captured from the french in 1796, featured in patrick o'brian's novels
barbary corsair xebecs — north african pirate ships operating from algiers and tunis in the 16th-18th centuries