#lugger

The frigate chased, and soon closed to within a quarter of a mile of the lugger, when she rounded-to, and poured in a broadside of grape, which brought her fore-yard down on deck. From that moment such an incessant fire of musketry was poured in from the frigate, that every man on board of M‘Elvina's vessel, who endeavoured to repair the mischief, was immediately struck down. Any attempt at escape was now hopeless. When within two cables' lengths, the frigate hove to the wind, keeping the lugger under her lee, and continued a fire of grape and musketry into her, until the rest of her sails were lowered down.

— Frederick Marryat, The King's Own

The 84-gun, second rate ship of the line HMS Asia, launched 1824, by John Ward.

Look how immense she is compared to the fishing lugger near her! Her anchor is half the size of the small vessel.

The Lougre, as the small 14-23m long ship with a closed deck was called, is a French development and served in the 18th century mainly as a dispatch, cannon or privateer vessel.

A smuggling lugger chased by a naval brig, cirlce arounf Thoams Buttersworth, 1825 (x) 

It was also used as a small coastal merchant ship or smuggling vessel.

The Greyhound a lugger replica of the 18th century (x)

They were small, light and had a flat keel so that they could sail close to the coast. a special feature was their sail plan. Their original layout was three masts, although not very high. The fore and main masts were almost the same height and could be folded down. The mizzenmast was therefore very far back. The main sails were the trapezoidal so-called lugger sails.

Plan of Le Coureur (1776) a french lougre

In the late 18th or early 19th century, the British also recognised the usefulness of these small, manoeuvrable ships and used them as dispatch ships. However, they also reworked the design and brought out the lugger, as they called it, as a two-master.

A two mast lugger (x)

Smuggling is one area in which Marryat quarrelled with the navy. The smuggling trade reached its peak between 1805 and 1835, and Marryat had first-hand experience with the trade between 1821-22 while he was commander of the Rosario, stationed at Portsmouth. The trade there was extremely lucrative with thousands of people participating without much danger of being caught. Marryat estimated that only about one-tenth of the goods smuggled were actually seized by the inefficient Coast Guard designed to stop the trade. Although it was Marryat’s task to catch smugglers, he admired the sleek smuggling vessels and their crew: “good seamen, smart, active fellows, and keen witted.”

— Louis J. Parascandola, Puzzled Which to Choose: Conflicting Socio-Political Views in the Works of Captain Frederick Marryat