MarisStella Stefano Bark 1:63 Scale

The bark, barque or barc, is a type of ship with three or more masts with the foremasts equipped with square sails and the sternmast with spanker and peak sail.The word barque comes from the Latin barca which derives from Spanish or Italian. The Latin word barca may come from Greek "baris" or Celtic "barc", a term used for an Egyptian boat.Rig of a three-masted barque: By the end of the 18th century, the term barque (sometimes spelled bark) began to refer to any sailing vessel with a particular type of sails, that consists of three (or more) masts, which at the foremast have square sails and at the stern mast have the spanker and the peak sail.Barques were the cargo ship of the mid-19th century with a smaller crews. The advantage of these rigs was that they took less crews than a comparable full-rigged ship or brig-rigged vessel as they had smaller square sails, which made it cheaper. On the other hand, the ship rigged like this was used for sailors' training, with a small crew and a large number of passengers, therefore, a larger number of trained sailors.Another advantage was that the barque can be faster than a schooner or barkentine, it is both easier to handle and better to upwind than a full-rigged ship.While a full-rigged ship is the best runner available, and a four or five-masted schooner is the best at going upwind, the barque is often the best choice, because it was the best combination of the two.