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

They curled round the lower mast, they ran up the rigging, they licked their way up the shrouds.

From Latitude 19 degree A Romance of the West Indies in the Year of Our Lord Eighteen Hundred and Twenty by Crowninshield, Mrs. Schuyler

A ship's lower mast is a made spar; her top-mast is a whole spar.—Made block is one having its shell composed of different pieces.

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

They waited till daylight, and then were just able to distinguish the lower mast of a steamer standing out of the water.

From The Sea: Its Stirring Story of Adventure, Peril, & Heroism. Volume 2 by Whymper, Frederick

He saw at once, however, that a great strain was being placed already on the stays which attached it, by chance and loosely at first, but now with ever-increasing rigidity, to the lower mast.

From His Unknown Wife by Tracy, Louis

Every hour of sleep the people get will be a lower mast saved.

From Homeward Bound or, the Chase by Cooper, James Fenimore