Driver boom, gaff and mizen lateen yard
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It is rather difficult to hold a heading to any great degree of accuracy with square sails only, and in the late 14th century a small mast was erected at the stern which was fitted with a triangular lateen sail, in order to improve this situation.
The lateen sail evolved in the Mediterranean, and was adopted in Northern Europe generally at the beginning of the 15th century; in this case it was termed the mizen course.
The lateen yard
The yard of a lateen sail is termed the lateen yard. In the Mediterranean, where the lateen sail was often the only one carried right to the end of the 19th century, the sail assumed gigantic dimensions and the yard consisted of 2 or 3 spars lashed together with wooldings. The upper end was called the head while the lower, thicker end was the foot. Ships which were otherwise square-rigged often carried very large lateen yards in the form of the mizen lateen yard up to 1550, sometimes lashed together from two spars, but after that time, and indeed on other ships before that time, it wa,S made in one piece like the other yards, or was made up from square-section timbers without wooldings.
In the 16th century lateen top and topgallant sails were also introduced
on the mizen and bonaventure mizen masts of large ships, but they very quickly disappeared again because they proved to be impractical.
The mizen lateen sail was retained until the early years of the 18th century when the fore part was removed and the leech lashed to the mast. The lateen yard was replaced by a gaff in small ships in the middle of the 18th century .Large ships retained the lateen yard until the end of the 18th century , a few surviving into the early years of the 19th century .The lateen yard was not symmetrical around its thickest section, like the other yards, but was slightly thinner at the head than at the foot (see drawing on the left).
Gaff and driver boom
In the second half of the 18th century the mizen yard was cut short at the mast, and the remaining upper part was fixed to the mast with a fork known as the jaws. A horizontal boom was then fitted at the bottom of the mast to enable the gaff sail to be fully deployed. This also ended in jaws, which rested on a saddle on the mast. The gaff and the driver boom jaws were held to the mast with a simple parral with trucks. In the 19th century the jaws were superseded by goosenecks.
The driver boom sometimes carried foot ropes, and various means of fitting a studding sailor ringtail were also tried. Like the lateen yard, the gaff and driver boom were not symmetrical around their thickest point, which is a point worth noting if you are aiming at an outstandingly accurate model.
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