[Anglo-Saxon mæst, also meant chief or greatest]. A long cylindrical piece of timber elevated perpendicularly upon the keel of a ship, to which are attached the yards, the rigging, and the sails. It is either formed of one piece, and called a pole-mast, or composed of several pieces joined together and termed a made mast. A lower mast is fixed in the ship by sheers (which see), and the foot or keel of it rests in a block of timber called the step, which is fixed upon the keelson.
♦ Expending a mast, or carrying it away, is said, when it is broken by foul weather.
♦ Fore-mast. That which stands near the stem, and is next in size to the main-mast.
♦ Jury-mast. (See jury-mast.)
♦ Main-mast. The largest mast in a ship.
♦ Mizen-mast. The smallest mast, standing between the main-mast and the stern.
♦ Over-masted, or taunt-masted. The state of a ship whose masts are too tall or too heavy.
♦ Rough-mast, or rough-tree. A spar fit for making a mast. (See bowsprit and jib-boom.)
♦ Springing a mast. When it is cracked horizontally in any place.
♦ Top-mast. A top-mast is raised at the head or top of the lower-mast through a cap, and supported by the trestle-trees.
♦ Topgallant-mast. A mast smaller than the preceding, raised and secured to its head in the same manner.
♦ Royal-mast. A yet smaller mast, elevated through irons at the head of the topgallant-mast; but more generally the two are formed of one spar.
♦ Under-masted or low-masted ships. Vessels whose masts are small and short for their size.
♦ To mast a ship. The act of placing a ship's masts.