The sailing shipBalclutha, showing (from left to right) itsmizzenmast,mainmast, andforemast.The battleship HMSDreadnought, showing its prominentforemast (the tallest portion of the ship) and stubmainmast (the small mast between the two aft turrets).
O, the most piteous cry of the poor souls! sometimes to see ’em, and not to see ’em; now the ship boring the moon with hermain-mast, and anon swallowed with yest and froth, as you’ld thrust a cork into a hogshead.
1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], “A Great Storm Described, the Long-Boat Sent to Fetch Water, the Author Goes with It to Discover the Country.[…]”, inTravels into Several Remote Nations of the World.[…][Gulliver’s Travels], volume I, London:[…]Benj[amin] Motte,[…],→OCLC, part II (A Voyage to Brobdingnag),page58:
Then turning to his first Minister, who waited behind him with a white Staff near as tall as theMain-mast of theRoyal Soveraign, he observed how contemptible a thing was human Grandeur, which could be mimicked by such diminutive Insects as I[…]
When we were in the latitude of Martinico, and near making the land, one morning we had a brisk gale of wind, and, carrying too much sail, themain-mast went over the side.
[…] skating farther than their wont that day they reached that part of the river where the ships had anchored and been frozen in midstream. Among them was the ship of the Muscovite Embassy flying its double-headed black eagle from themain mast, which was hung with many-coloured icicles several yards in length.
(nautical) The second-foremostmast of a non-sailing ship with more than one mast.
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