Ketch mizzen sheet. So on a ketch, the dual purpose of the mizzen sail is to both propel and balance the vessel, while on a yawl, the smaller mizzen mainly serves the purpose of trim or balance. Yawls tend to have mainsails almost as large as those of comparable sloops. A ketch may be distinguished from a cutter or a sloop by virtue of having two masts rather than one, though a ketch with two foresails is sometimes called a "cutter-rigged ketch". Both the ketch and the yawl differ from the two-masted schooner, whose aft mainmast is taller than the foremast.
Jack Ketch at the execution of Lord Russell, the Duke of Monmouth, and other political offenders." Because of his botched executions, the name "Jack Ketch" is used as a proverbial name for death, Satan, and executioner. Ketch took office in 1663, succeeding the late Edward Dun, to whom he had been apprenticed. He is first mentioned in the Proceedings of the Old Bailey for 14 January 1676, although no printed notice of the new hangman occurred until 2 December 1678, when a broadside appeared called "The Plotters Ballad, being Jack Ketch's incomparable Receipt for the Cure of Traytorous Recusants and Wholesome Physick