The following varieties were built:

Tern schooner at dockside c. 1910. This design is notable for all three masts being of equal height.

 Grand Banks fishing schooner: similar to Bluenose, includes a gaff topsail on the main

mast and a fisherman's staysail. In the winter this would sail as a two-masted fishing
schooner, without topmasts and their upper sails.[12]
 Square topsail schooner: includes square topsails. [12] A version with raked masts and
known for its great speed, called the Baltimore Clipper was popular in the early 1800s.
 Four masted schooner: this design spread the sail area over many smaller sails, at a
time when sails were hoisted by hand. These were used for coastal trade on the Atlantic
coast of North America, the West Indies, South America, and some trans-Atlantic
voyages.[12]
 Tern schooner: a three masted schooner very popular between 1880 and 1920.
[12]
 Wawona, the largest ever built, sailed on the West Coast from 1897 to 1947.

Uses[edit]
Schooners were built primarily for cargo, passengers, and fishing.
The Norwegian polar schooner Fram was used by both Fridtjof Nansen and Roald Amundsen in
their explorations of the poles.
Bluenose was both a successful fishing boat and a racer. America, eponym of America's Cup, was
one of the few schooners ever designed for racing. This race was long dominated by schooners.
Three-masted schooner Atlantic set the transatlantic sailing record for a monohull in the
1905 Kaiser's Cup race. The record remained unbroken for nearly 100 years.[13]