For the racehorse, see Captain's Gig (horse)

Captain's Gig (horse)

Captain's Gig was an American Thoroughbred racehorse bred and raced by Harry Guggenheim's Cain Hoy Stable. Sired by Turn-To, his dam was Guggenheim's good runner Make Sail who in 1960 won the Kentucky Oaks and Alabama Stakes...

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The captain's gig ^{(pronunciation?)} is a boat

Boat

A boat is a watercraft of any size designed to float or plane, to provide passage across water. Usually this water will be inland or in protected coastal areas. However, boats such as the whaleboat were designed to be operated from a ship in an offshore environment. In naval terms, a boat is a...

 used on naval ships as the captain's private taxi. It is a catchall phrase for this type of craft and over the years it has gradually increased in size, changed with the advent of new technologies for locomotion, and been crafted from increasingly more durable materials.

Wooden captain gigs

In general, during the era of wooden ships, it was smaller and lighter than the longboat

Longboat

In the days of sailing ships, a vessel would carry several ship's boats for various uses. One would be a longboat, an open boat to be rowed by eight or ten oarsmen, two per thwart...

 or the barge

Barge

A barge is a flat-bottomed boat, built mainly for river and canal transport of heavy goods. Some barges are not self-propelled and need to be towed by tugboats or pushed by towboats...

 or the pinnace

Pinnace (ship's boat)

As a ship's boat the pinnace is a light boat, propelled by sails or oars, formerly used as a "tender" for guiding merchant and war vessels. In modern parlance, pinnace has come to mean a boat associated with some kind of larger vessel, that doesn't fit under the launch or lifeboat definitions...

. It was usually crewed by 4 select oarsmen, and a coxswain

Coxswain

The coxswain is the person in charge of a boat, particularly its navigation and steering. The etymology of the word gives us a literal meaning of "boat servant" since it comes from cox, a coxboat or other small vessel kept aboard a ship, and swain, which can be rendered as boy, in authority. ...

. Generally the oarsmen sat one to a seat, but each only rowed a single oar

Oar

An oar is an implement used for water-borne propulsion. Oars have a flat blade at one end. Oarsmen grasp the oar at the other end. The difference between oars and paddles are that paddles are held by the paddler, and are not connected with the vessel. Oars generally are connected to the vessel by...

 on alternating sides. The gig was not as sea kindly as the longboat, but was used mostly in harbors.

The gigs generally had a high wineglass transom

Transom (nautical)

In naval architecture, a transom is the surface that forms the stern of a vessel. Transoms may be flat or curved and they may be vertical, raked forward, also known as a retroussé or reverse transom, angling forward from the waterline to the deck, or raked aft, often simply called "raked", angling...

  (image), full skeg

Skeg

A skeg is a sternward extension of the keel of boats and ships which have a rudder mounted on the centre line. The term also applies to the lowest point on an outboard motor or the outdrive of an inboard/outboard...

, full keel

Keel

In boats and ships, keel can refer to either of two parts: a structural element, or a hydrodynamic element. These parts overlap. As the laying down of the keel is the initial step in construction of a ship, in British and American shipbuilding traditions the construction is dated from this event...

, straight stem and somewhat rounded sides. There was in general very little rocker in the keel. The gunwale

Gunwale

The gunwale is a nautical term describing the top edge of the side of a boat.Wale is the same word as the skin injury, a wheal, which, too, forms a ridge. Originally the gunwale was the "Gun ridge" on a sailing warship. This represented the strengthening wale or structural band added to the design...

s on many were nearly straight from bow

Bow (ship)

The bow is a nautical term that refers to the forward part of the hull of a ship or boat, the point that is most forward when the vessel is underway. Both of the adjectives fore and forward mean towards the bow...

 to stern

Stern

The stern is the rear or aft-most part of a ship or boat, technically defined as the area built up over the sternpost, extending upwards from the counter rail to the taffrail. The stern lies opposite of the bow, the foremost part of a ship. Originally, the term only referred to the aft port section...

. It appears to be the precursor to the Whitehall Rowboat

Whitehall Rowboat

Whitehall Rowboats are considered one of the most refined rowboats of the 19th century. The basic design is much older and of European ancestry. It strongly resembles a sailing ship's gig or a Thames river wherry used by watermen as a taxi service. They were first made in the U.S...

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Some wooden captain's gigs were quite large and were powered by sail, such as the French Captain's Sailing Gig @1918, Brest France.

Modern captain gigs

With the coming of metal ships and combustion engines the size of the captain's gig increased and the boats could transport more sailors swiftly. Two examples are the Captain's Gig, USS Wisconsin 1950's and the 1942 USN Jack Ballard.

Some modern built craft with sails have been named captain's gig as well. Modern Fiberglass Captain's Gig

Futuristic captain gigs

In science fiction

Science fiction

Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...

, the term is often used to refer to a small auxiliary spacecraft. In Star Trek

Star Trek

Star Trek is an American science fiction entertainment franchise created by Gene Roddenberry. The core of Star Trek is its six television series: The Original Series, The Animated Series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise...

, the craft are referred to as a "Captain's Yacht" Sci-fi Captain's Gig, USS Enterprise

See also

• Cornish pilot gig
  Cornish pilot gig
  The Cornish pilot gig is a six-oared rowing boat, built of Cornish narrow leaf elm, long with a beam of four feet ten inches.It is recognised as one of the first shore-based lifeboats that went to vessels in distress, with recorded rescues going back as far as the late 17th century.The original...
  
  , a larger boat (crewed by 6 plus a cox) which used to be used to transport pilots out to ships.