WHAT IS A SCHOONER?

A fore-and-aft rigged vessel with two or more masts, often called by its rig, e.g. topsail schooner, gaff schooner, staysail schooner, etc.
A Dictionary of Sailing

Dutch schooner, German schoner, Danish skonnert, Spanish and Portuguese escaña, all possibly derived from the Scottish verb "to scon or scoon," to skip over water like a flat stone. An alternative source for the name is said to have come from a chance remark "there she scoons" from a spectator at the launch of the first vessel of the type at Gloucester, Mass. in 1713. There is also some evidence that the type originated in North America and probably at Gloucester. Whatever the origin of the name a schooner is a vessel rigged with fore-and-aft sails on her two or more masts, and originally carried square sails on her foremast, though later, with the advance in rig designs, these were changed to jib-headed or jackyard-topsails. Today, the small schooner yachts normally set Bermuda sails and thus have no topsails. Properly speaking, a schooner has two masts only, with the mainmast taller than the fore, but three-masted, four-masted, and five-masted schooners have been built, and one, the Thomas W. Lawson, had as many as seven. They were largely used in the coasting trade and also for fishing on the Grand Banks off Newfoundland, their attraction to owners being that they required a smaller crew than a square-rigged vessel of comparable size.
The Oxford Companion to Ships and The Sea

Schooners are fore-and-aft rigged (as distinguished from square-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 may be the same height). Thus the after mast becomes the mainmast and the other the foremast. Additional names are used if there are more than two masts.
Chapman: Piloting, Seamanship and Small Boat Handling

Compared with the square rig, the fore-and-aft schooner has the advantage of being a better craft when sailing close-hauled and requiring a smaller crew. ... In Nova Scotia inshore fishermen used schooner-rigged open boats about twenty feet in length which are probably the smallest craft with this rig.
International Maritime Dictionary

	WHAT IS A SCHOONER? A fore-and-aft rigged vessel with two or more masts, often called by its rig, e.g. topsail schooner, gaff schooner, staysail schooner, etc. A Dictionary of Sailing Dutch schooner, German schoner, Danish skonnert, Spanish and Portuguese escaña, all possibly derived from the Scottish verb "to scon or scoon," to skip over water like a flat stone. An alternative source for the name is said to have come from a chance remark "there she scoons" from a spectator at the launch of the first vessel of the type at Gloucester, Mass. in 1713. There is also some evidence that the type originated in North America and probably at Gloucester. Whatever the origin of the name a schooner is a vessel rigged with fore-and-aft sails on her two or more masts, and originally carried square sails on her foremast, though later, with the advance in rig designs, these were changed to jib-headed or jackyard-topsails. Today, the small schooner yachts normally set Bermuda sails and thus have no topsails. Properly speaking, a schooner has two masts only, with the mainmast taller than the fore, but three-masted, four-masted, and five-masted schooners have been built, and one, the Thomas W. Lawson, had as many as seven. They were largely used in the coasting trade and also for fishing on the Grand Banks off Newfoundland, their attraction to owners being that they required a smaller crew than a square-rigged vessel of comparable size. The Oxford Companion to Ships and The Sea Schooners are fore-and-aft rigged (as distinguished from square-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 may be the same height). Thus the after mast becomes the mainmast and the other the foremast. Additional names are used if there are more than two masts. Chapman: Piloting, Seamanship and Small Boat Handling Compared with the square rig, the fore-and-aft schooner has the advantage of being a better craft when sailing close-hauled and requiring a smaller crew. ... In Nova Scotia inshore fishermen used schooner-rigged open boats about twenty feet in length which are probably the smallest craft with this rig. International Maritime Dictionary