Schooners are fore and aft- rigged and have two or more masts.
Unlike yawls and ketches, the after mast of a two-masted
schooner is taller than the forward one ( in rare designs' the
two masts maybe the same height).
A topsail schooner carries a square
fore- topsail. Frequently, top-gallant sail and royal schooners
[ have been ] built with two, three, four, many with five and one, the
Thomas W. Lawson, with seven.
Schooners without top-masts above the
lower masts are bald-headed.
excerpt from;
Piloting Seamanship and Small Boat Handling
by Charles F. Chapman
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