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The principal mast in a ship or other vessel.

The sails on the mizzenmast, or on the stays between the mainmast and mizzenmast. Totten.

A three-masted vessel, having her foremast and mainmast squarerigged, and her mizzenmast schooner-rigged.

traverse. -- The booms, that space on the upper deck of a ship between the foremast and mainmast, where the boats, spare spars, etc., are stowed. Totten.

A Venetian vessel, with a square stern, having only a mainmast, jigger mast, and bowsprit; also a sloop of war ship-rigged.

A strong, light-draft, Dutch merchant vessel, carrying a mainmast and a mizzenmast, and a large gaff mainsail.

of a ship. Jeer capstan (Naut.), an extra capstan usually placed between the foremast and mainmast.

An almost obsolete form of vessel, with a mainmast and a mizzenmast, -- usually from one hundred to two hundred and fifty tons burden. Bomb ketch. See under Bomb.

The yard on which the mainsail is extended, supported by the mainmast.

The platform about the head of the mainmast in square-rigged vessels.

That part of the upper deck abaft the mainmast, including the poop deck when there is one.

Specifically, a vessel furnished with a bowsprit and three masts (a mainmast, a foremast, and a mizzenmast), each of which is composed of a lower mast, a topmast, and a topgallant mast, and square-rigged on all masts. See Illustation in Appendix. l Port or Larboard Side; s Starboard Side; 1 Roundhouse or Deck House; 2…

-rigged vessel, differing from a brig only in that she has a trysail mast close abaft the mainmast, on which a large trysail is hoisted.

A fore-and-aft sail, abaft the foremast or the mainmast, hoisted upon a small supplementary mast and set with a gaff and no boom; a trysail carried at the foremast or mainmast; -- named after its inventor, Knight Spencer, of England [1802]. Spencer mast, a small mast just abaft the foremast or mainmast, for hoisting th…

en. -- Triatic stay (Naut.), a rope secured at the ends to the heads of the foremast and mainmast with thimbles spliced to its bight into which the stay tackles hook.

A fore-and-aft-rigged vessel with a mainmast stepped a little farther forward than in a sloop and carrying a mainsail and jibs, with a jigger mast far aft, usually placed abaft the rudder post.