Word of the day: brigantine

The word of the day is brigantine:

1. a two-masted sailing vessel, square-rigged on the foremast and having a fore-and-aft mainsail with square upper sails.
2. hermaphrodite brig.

"small two-masted ship," 1520s, from M.Fr. brigandin (15c.), from It. brigantino, perhaps "skirmishing vessel, pirate ship," from brigante "skirmisher, pirate, brigand" from brigare "fight" (see brigade).

(http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/brigantine)

"The newly moved colony, Santa María la Antigua del Darién (Antigua), was legally under the jurisdiction of another conquistador.  When this conquistador came to Antigua to demand control, Núñez de Balboa put him onto a leaky brigantine and told him to sail away."

 - Charles Mann, 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created