mizzentop

plural mizzentops · alternative mizen-top · alternative mizen top · alternative mizzen-top · alternative mizzen top

1. A framework and platform at the top of the lower mizzenmast of a sailing ship

   Hornblower […] turned away to go aloft so as to brood over the question in the solitude of the mizzen-top.

   1950, C. S. Forester, chapter 5, in Mr. Midshipman Hornblower, Penguin, published 2006

   3 more examples

   1761, Richard Owen Cambridge, An Account of the War in India Between the English and the French on the Coast of Coromandel, from the Year 1750 to the Year 1761, Second edition, London: T. Jefferys, 1762, p. 178, https://books.google.ca/books?id=XJybUabhbGgC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false […] the Compte de Provence, the enemies leading ship, put before the wind, having cut away her mizen-mast on account of taking fire in the mizen top.

   The naval action in front of the pedestal exhibits the situation of the fleet towards the conclusion of the battle, when the hero was mortally wounded by a shot from the mizen-top of a seventy-four, with which ship the Victory appears to be closely engaged.

   1811, T. O. Churchill, The Life of Lord Viscount Nelson, Duke of Bronte, &c, London: Harrison & Leigh, page 145

   […] he had thought of recommending him to the executive officer for promotion to a place that would more frequently bring him under his own observation, namely, the captaincy of the mizzentop […]

   1924, Herman Melville, chapter 16, in Billy Budd, London: Constable & Co.