They are traditionally rigged and if you know anything about tall ships, there are naval protocols which must be observed in order for these stately ladies to qualify as such. She can be square rigged, gaffe rigged (with separate topmasts and topsails) with sails attached to wooden masts. She might be a schooner, brigantines, brig or a barque but always her rigging formation is more complex than modern rigging which utilizes newer materials like steel and aluminium
Mariner and author, Joseph Conrad, was very particular about the terminology and in 'The Mirror of the Sea' in 1903 his phrase 'tall ship' was thought to be common in the last quarter of the 19th century.
Quite what he'd make of the Lord Nelson's metal masts won't be known of course and matters little considering the reason she was built - the first tall ship in the world to have been designed and built to be sailed by people of all physical abilities on equal terms. That's part of her magic and although she would have liked to have sailed on the breeze into Opua a couple of weeks ago as part of the Trans-Tasman Tall Ships race from Sydney to Opua, arriving in all her majestic glory like a dowager in billowing chiffon descending the staircase as if to the manor born, she had trouble with her top rigging and had to use the diesel to motor into the bay.
On board are some paying crew like the two seventy-something old salts (both born in England but now resident in Sydney) who were living the dream and it wasn't as easy-going or as romantic as they had imagined. One said his bunk berth was so narrow he could barely roll over and he was surprised at the taxing nature of rope-pulling and very early morning watch hours. They had joined the ship because race rules meant no motoring and obviously disappointed the motor had to be used for the Opua arrival but thrilled nonetheless to be sailing on this English duchess of the sea.
Other ships to arrive in Opua for the Trans-Tasman race were far more traditionally constructed. Tecla, from the Netherlands, was built in Vlaardingen in 1915 specifically to plunder North Sea herring. Her two sister Dutch ships in the Bay were the Bark Europe, which is a few years older, built in 1911 and the Oosterschelde, the last of the large schooner fleet that sailed under the Dutch flag in the early part of the 20th century. They all have wooden masts and decking that generate distinctive creaks and groans as they flex their maritime muscles.