Top (sailing ship)

[1] This is not the masthead "crow's nest" of the popular imagination – above the mainmast (for example) is the main-topmast, main-topgallant-mast and main-royal-mast, so that the top is actually about 1/4 to 1/3 of the way up the mast as a whole.

These crosstrees rest on two trestle trees running fore and aft, which themselves are placed on top of the cheeks of hounds, bolted to the sides of the mast.

At these points a smaller top might be constructed, but it is more usual simply to leave the shroud-bearing struts open, in which case they are known as crosstrees.

[3] Similar main-top and fore-top platforms have been retained on steam ships and motor vessels as preferred locations for installing rotating radar antennae.

They could also hold sailors or marines armed with muskets or rifles; Horatio Nelson was mortally wounded at the Battle of Trafalgar by a sniper firing from a fighting top of the Redoutable.