Sloop-of-war

In the 18th and most of the 19th centuries, a sloop-of-war in the Royal Navy was a warship with a single gun deck that carried up to eighteen guns. The rating system covered all vessels with 20 guns and above; thus, the term sloop-of-war actually encompassed all the unrated combat vessels, including the very small gun-brigs and cutters. In technical terms, even the more specialised bomb vessels and fireships were classed as sloops-of-war, and in practice these were actually employed in the sloop role when not carrying out their specialized functions.

In World War I and World War II, the Royal Navy reused the term "sloop" for specialized convoy-defence vessels, including the Flower class of World War I and the highly successful Black Swan class of World War II, with anti-aircraft and anti-submarine capability.

Rigging

A sloop-of-war was quite different from a civilian or mercantile sloop, which was a general term for a single-masted vessel rigged in a way that would today be called a gaff cutter (but usually without the square topsails then carried by cutter-rigged vessels), though some sloops of that type did serve in the 18th century British Royal Navy, particularly on the Great Lakes of North America.

Sid Meier

Sidney K. "Sid" Meier (born February 24, 1954) is a Canadian-American programmer, designer, and producer of several popular strategy video games and simulation video games, most notably the Civilization series. Meier co-founded MicroProse in 1982 with Bill Stealey and is the Director of Creative Development of Firaxis Games, which he co-founded with Jeff Briggs and Brian Reynolds in 1996. He has won several prestigious accolades for his contributions to the video game industry.

Early life and education

Meier was born in the Canadian city of Sarnia to parents of Dutch descent. He later moved to Michigan and studied history and computer science, graduating with a degree in computer science from the University of Michigan. Meier lives in Hunt Valley, Maryland, with his wife, Susan. He met his wife at the Evangelical Lutheran Church, Faith Lutheran, in Cockeysville, where he plays the organ. Meier and his wife both sing in the church choir.

Career

Meier founded MicroProse with Bill Stealey in 1982, and by 1986 the company was using his name and face in advertisements for its games. MicroProse at first developed mostly simulation video games, such as Silent Service and F-19 Stealth Fighter. In 1987, the company released Sid Meier's Pirates!, which also began a trend of placing Meier's name in the titles of his games. He later explained that the inclusion of his name was because of the dramatic departure in the design of Pirates! compared to the company's earlier titles. Stealey decided that it would improve the company's branding, believing that it would make those who purchased the flight simulators more likely to play the game. Stealey recalled: "We were at dinner at a Software Publishers Association meeting, and Robin Williams was there. And he kept us in stitches for two hours. And he turns to me and says 'Bill, you should put Sid's name on a couple of these boxes, and promote him as the star.' And that's how Sid's name got on Pirates, and Civilization."