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.
15,000 Miles in a Ketch and Indian seas to outside Melbourne Harbour in July 1909. The voyage totalled a distance of 15,000 miles, which is where the name of the novel originates. Although du Baty's native language was French, 15,000 Miles in a Ketch was first published in English. It was later translated to and published in French in 1991 by Ed. maritimes et d'outre-mer under the title, Aventures aux Kerguelen. Since Francis Drake went round the world in the Golden Hind there has perhaps been no voyage quite so venturesome as that in a little French fishing ketch, of forty-five tons, called the J.B.