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The top on a traditional square rigged ship is the platform at the upper end of each (lower) mast. [1] This is not the masthead " crow's nest " of the popular imagination – above the mainmast (for example) is the main-topmast, main-topgallant-mast and main-royal-mast, so that the top is actually about 1/4 to 1/3 of the way up the mast as a whole.
Sprit topmast: a small mast set on the end of the bowsprit (discontinued after the early 18th century); not usually counted as a mast, however, when identifying a ship as "two-masted" or "three-masted" Fore-mast: the mast nearest the bow, or the mast forward of the main-mast. [3] As it is the furthest afore, it may be rigged to the bowsprit.
Foremast, which is the second tallest mast; Mainmast, the tallest; Mizzenmast, the third tallest; Jiggermast, which may not be present but will be fourth tallest if so; If the masts are of wood, each mast is in three or more pieces. They are (in order, from bottom up): [3] The mast or the lower. Topmast; Topgallant mast; Royal mast, if fitted
Sailing ships prior to the mid-19th century used wood masts with hemp-fiber standing rigging. As rigs became taller by the end of the 19th century, masts relied more heavily on successive spars, stepped one atop the other to form the whole, from bottom to top: the lower mast, top mast, and topgallant mast. This construction relied heavily on ...
A two-masted vessel has a mainmast, the other being a foremast or mizzen. Ships with more than three masts may simply number them or use another scheme, as with the five-masted Preussen. On a square-sailed vessel, the sails of each mast are named by the mast and position on the mast. For instance, on the mainmast (from bottom to top): main course
The main mast is the second and taller of the two masts. Older usages are looser; in addition to the rigorous definition above (attested from 1695), the Oxford English Dictionary includes two c. 1525 definitions: "a small vessel equipped both for sailing and rowing, swifter and more easily manœuvred than larger ships" and "(loosely) various ...
Main yard lower end 74.88 20.22 Main yard upper piece 105.30 28.43 Mainmast draft below deck 8 2.16 Mizzen mast draft 6 1.62 Distance of the mainmast forward of center 2 0.54 Distance of mizzenmast aft of center 3.4 9.19 Inside the bowsprit 10 2.7 Interior of the coaster 6 1.62 Angle of the mainmast with the vertical 18° Mizzen mast angle aft 5°
The section of mast immediately above the top was often painted white as the lower masthead used to be, with the section of the steel mast representing the topmast continuing on above in its usual colour. Topgallant masts and royal masts were similarly combined, though, being shorter, they were often one spar even in the days of wood. A common ...