A sprit topmast is a small

topmast The masts of traditional sailing ships were not single spars, but were constructed of separate sections or masts, each with its own rigging. The topmast is one of these. The topmast is semi-permanently attached to the upper front of the lower m ...

that was sometimes carried on the end of the

bowsprit The bowsprit of a sailing vessel is a spar extending forward from the vessel's prow. The bowsprit is typically held down by a bobstay A bobstay is a part of the rigging of a sailing boat or ship. Its purpose is to counteract the upward tensio ...

of a large European

warship A warship or combatant ship is a naval ship that is built and primarily intended for naval warfare. Usually they belong to the armed forces of a state. As well as being armed, warships are designed to withstand damage and are usually faster ...

during the

Age of Sail The Age of Sail is a period that lasted at the latest from the mid-16th (or mid- 15th) to the mid-19th centuries, in which the dominance of sailing ships in global trade and warfare culminated, particularly marked by the introduction of nava ...

. Its purpose as initially built was to assist the

spritsail The spritsail is a four-sided, fore-and-aft sail that is supported at its highest points by the mast and a diagonally running spar known as the sprit. The foot of the sail can be stretched by a boom or held loose-footed just by its sheets. A spr ...

(which hung below it) in bringing the around when tacking. Unlike other topmasts, the sprit topmast, because of its odd angle, lacked a

sheave A sheave () or pulley wheel is a grooved wheel often used for holding a belt, wire rope, or rope and incorporated into a pulley A pulley is a wheel on an axle or shaft that is designed to support movement and change of direction of a ...

. Instead, the short vertical pole (the mast proper) was secured to the bowsprit with a

knee In humans and other primates, the knee joins the thigh with the leg and consists of two joints: one between the femur and tibia (tibiofemoral joint), and one between the femur and patella (patellofemoral joint). It is the largest joint in the ...

, and held a platform ("top") supported underneath by trestletrees and

crosstrees Crosstrees are the two horizontal spars at the upper ends of the topmasts of sailing ships, used to anchor the shrouds from the topgallant mast. Similarly, they may be mounted at the upper end of the topgallant to anchor the shrouds from the r ...

and further secured to the bowsprit with a series of special chain plates. Above the platform ran a horizontal yard, the sprit topsail yard, from which a square square-rigged sail called the sprit topsail (the only sail on this mast) hung. Above this was a jackstaff. The mast was secured to the rear with a

backstay A backstay is a piece of standing rigging on a sailing vessel that runs from the mast to either its transom or rear quarter, counteracting the forestay and jib. It is an important sail trim control and has a direct effect on the shape of the ma ...

that led to the foremast of the ship. The hoisting and hauling the spritsail top sail had to be done by a man standing on the spritsail platform without the security of any safety net. That the hauling of the sail usually had to be done specifically as the weather was turning bad meant that the task was particularly dangerous. When the implementation of the jib sail necessitated the removal of this topmast, few would mourn its passing. By the middle of the eighteenth century shipbuilders began using jibs to do the same job as the spritsail topmast with greater efficiency and less risk to human life. The stays for the jib sails made the spritsail top both irrelevant and inconvenient. By 1720 it ceased to be incorporated into new ship designs. Its place was taken by the

jibboom A jibboom (also spelt jib-boom) is a spar used to extend the length of a bowsprit on sailing ships. It can itself be extended further by a flying jib-boom. The heel (i.e. rear and lower) end of the flying jib-boom is attached to the jib-boom, and ...

, and its function and stay were replaced with the

dolphin striker A dolphin striker (an older term for a martingale boom or simply a martingale; sometimes called a striker) is a small vertical or near vertical ancillary spar spanning between the bowsprit and martingale thereby redirecting the tension in the forw ...

stay.

References

{{Sail types Sailing ship components