foretop

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fore·top

(fôr′tŏp′)

1. (also -təp) Nautical A platform at the top of the lower section of the foremast of a square-rigged ship.

2. A forelock, especially of a horse.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

foretop

(ˈfɔːˌtɒp; nautical ˈfɔːtəp)

(Nautical Terms) nautical a platform at the top of the foremast

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

fore•top

(ˈfɔrˌtɒp, ˈfoʊr-; for 1 also Naut. -təp)

n.

1. a platform at the head of a fore lower mast of a ship.

2. the forelock of an animal, esp. a horse.

[1250–1300]

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Noun	1.	foretop - a platform at the head of a foremast platform - a raised horizontal surface; "the speaker mounted the platform"
	2.	foretop - a lock of a horse's mane that grows forward between the ears forelock encolure - the mane of a horse hair - a covering for the body (or parts of it) consisting of a dense growth of threadlike structures (as on the human head); helps to prevent heat loss; "he combed his hair"; "each hair consists of layers of dead keratinized cells"

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Playing whist by the cabin lamps when it is storming outside is pleasant; walking the quarterdeck in the moonlight is pleasant; smoking in the breezy foretop is pleasant when one is not afraid to go up there; but these are all feeble and commonplace compared with the joy of seeing people suffering the miseries of seasickness.

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With that he gave an order to the steersman, and sent Riach to the foretop. There were only five men on deck, counting the officers; these being all that were fit (or, at least, both fit and willing) for their work.

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She would have made a captain of the foretop in the old days."

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Sailin's an art, Harvey, as I'd show you if I had ye in the foretop o' the -"

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At the time, the HMS Shannon on which Hall was then serving as Captain of the Foretop was in Chinese waters.

WILLIAM HALL VC: Sailor, Farmer

I went up that ladder really fast to get to the top of the foretop.

A (frightening) bird's eye view

Norman Augustus Finch, of Handsworth and the Royal Marine Artillery, continued to fire his Lewis Gun from the foretop of HMS 'Vindictive' despite his severe wounds and thus saved the lives of many of his comrades on July 22 and 23, 1918.

A TIME FOR HEROES

The Apsaalooke have their own name for Heart Mountain, Foretop's Father, because the mountain adopted an Apsaalooke warrior named Foretop and gave him great power, evidenced in his remarkable career as a chief.

Indigenous studies and "the sacred"

Crowell describes the practice of "Last man on deck Up and Over," in which the cadet who finished last had to repeat the climb up the rigging, over the foretop, and down the other side to the safety of the deck.

I LOVED THIS WORK ... I HAVE BEEN DELIGHTFULLY BUSY: AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY BY JOHN T. CROWELL, MASTER MARINER, AT SEA AND IN THE POLAR REGIONS

Seventeen years earlier, Taylor recounts, the hapless Captain Codd and the crew of the Marlborough also tried to escape to the rigging only to have most of the survivors surrender to the slaves; only to have the captain, in hiding in the foretop, be betrayed by his coattail and then summarily executed.