Sloop

We come on the sloop John B
My grandfather and me
Around Nassau town we did roam
Drinking all night
Got into a fight
Well I feel so broke up
I want to go home

So hoist up the John B's sail
See how the mainsail sets
Call for the captain ashore
Let me go home, let me go home
I wanna go home, yeah yeah
Well I feel so broke up
I wanna go home

(from) Sloop John B The Beach Boys

Basic Information

A sloop is a ship … normally … at least in the sense of being a watercraft that carries its own tender, since all sorts of things can be sloop rigged. Most of the time, and certainly in the modern era, a sloop has one mast, with a single Bermuda type sail foreward of the mast and a gaff or Bermuda rigged mainsail.

However (and just to confuse things) back in the age of sail, the Royal Navy also called any ship-rigged vessel of fewer than 20 guns nominal a sloop (normally a "ship sloop" or "sloop of war").

Sources

Bibliography

1. full source reference

Game and Story Use

• Ripe for confusion, especially in the early 1800s unless you make entirely sure you know whether your informant is referring to a "Li'l fore-an-aft Berumdey Sloop" or "a thurr' goin' ship sloop o' eighteen' guns" (which could easily be the difference between a broadside of 9 32lb carronades served by a crew of 120 men and one of a couple of six pound cannons served by a dozen or so).