I'm sure that you Navy ring customers already knew this but I didn't have a clear idea of what a Schooner was until I did the research to write this post. After I did I found the research to be quite fascinating. The description of a schooner is a sailing ship with at least one fore sail and one aft sail. Now there were many different types of schooners and some had more sails than others. The way that they were made naturally depended on the way that they would be utilized. The foresail (I assume that this is the sail in front). Is never larger than the aft sail although it may be the same size. I am sure that you Navy ring customers can educate the rest of us on the reasons for this. 

These ships were known for their speed and the amount of firepower that they could carry. As you can see from the picture the schooner could be quite large. It could also be a fierce fighter because of the number of cannons and the amount of ordinance that it could carry. Because of this combination of speed and firepower the Schooner was a favorite ship for pirates. They used it to come in blasting and get out quickly. It was ideal for the hit and run tactics that they used to fight and plunder. I would compare these tactics to the airmobile operations that our US Army Airmobile ring customers are trained in.