lower mast

American  

[loh-er] / ˈloʊ ər /

noun

Nautical.

1. the lowermost spar of a compound mast, stepped in the hull of a vessel and carrying a topmast and any other upper spars.

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Example Sentences

In the same manner as the top mast slides up through the cap of the lower mast, the topgallant-mast slides up through the cap of the top-masts.

From The Sailor's Word-Book An Alphabetical Digest of Nautical Terms, including Some More Especially Military and Scientific, but Useful to Seamen; as well as Archaisms of Early Voyagers, etc. by Belcher, Edward, Sir

The ships had now so much motion as to strain the gear very much, and even to make the lower mast of the Fury bend in spite of the shores.

From Narratives of Shipwrecks of the Royal Navy; between 1793 and 1849 by Gilly, William O. S.

Also, a strop round a lower mast carrying leading-blocks.

From The Sailor's Word-Book An Alphabetical Digest of Nautical Terms, including Some More Especially Military and Scientific, but Useful to Seamen; as well as Archaisms of Early Voyagers, etc. by Belcher, Edward, Sir

In a few minutes we saw another of our competitors in the same state, her lower mast having gone apparently about the same distance from the deck.

From Through East Anglia in a Motor Car by Vincent, J. E. (James Edmund)

A few top-masts sprung and yards carried away are trifles, and you may think yourself fortunate if it does not happen to a lower mast.

From A Sailor of King George by Bevan, A. Beckford