The painting in question was a small study of a cutter with mains'l brailed up, nodding quietly at anchor off a shadowy town by Walter Langley. It was a small piece, probably never intended to exhibition but it was called "lugger at anchor" when the vessel was patently a cutter. It probably doesn't matter but one day all these lovely boats will just be 'boats'. There was a lovely Tuke watercolour referring to a 'boat' when it was more accurately a tops'l schooner. Boat usually mean small rowing craft, often towed behind a bigger one; i.e. the ship's boat. Yachts often refer to a 'tender'. I reckon so called because they are, tender that is. flighty, light weight and apt to tip over if you shift your balance. They are used to tend to a larger craft, move supplies and personnel between ships. In the Nelsonic navy; a ship (one that is ship rigged - three masted, square sailed) often had a number of small boats on board: a launch, a jolly boat, a long boat, for example. Even a cutter which was then a rowing and sailing boat. 'Jolly' probably derives from the Dutch or Swedish 'joule' as does yawl. It may come from the French Jolie meaning pretty, like Jolie Brise and jolie rouge, or jolly roger.
Who knows but they have a history in which the very words conjure up images from a romantic and dashing past.
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