5. Plan of a modernArab boat with lateen sail used in the Red Sea. From F. Paris, Souvenirs de marine.Collectionde plansou dessinsde navires et de bateauxanciensou modernesexistants ou disparus,Part 1 (Paris 1882) No. 56. 6. The Voyageof St. Julian,a miniature(now destroyed)by Hubert Van Eyckfrom the Turin Bookof Hours.The vesselis showntraveling beforea favorablewind. Figure lc, which shows a spritsail. As the ancestor of the sails our small craft use today, it is of especial interest to us. Here, as in modern rigs, the sail is made fast to the mast and merely supported by a spar, in this case one that runs diagonally across the surface of the canvas. The earliest example that nautical experts have been able to find of this type is in a miniature from the hand of the Flemish painter Hubert Van Eyck (Figure 6) which dates about 1416. And since the rig is not found in the Mediterranean until over two hundred years later, they have concluded that northerners brought 217