“ An aluminum mast has considerable advantages over a wooden one: it is lighter and slimmer than a wood one in every of the same energy, is impervious
to rot, and can be produced as a single extruded length.
Such a piece was often called a made mast, versus sections formed from single pieces of timber, which had been often called
pole masts. This is because these conventional types used to have
three masts, however it was found convenient to dispense with the main-mast and carry bigger sails
on the remaining masts. Fore-mast: the mast nearest the bow, or the mast ahead of
the main-mast. This contrasts with a ketch or a yawl, the place the after mast, and its principle sail, is clearly the smaller of the two, so the terminology is
(from ahead) mainmast and mizzen. Harland, John.
Seamanship within the Age of Sail, pp. A two-masted merchant vessel with a sizable foresail rigged on a barely inclined foremast is depicted in an Etruscan tomb
painting from 475 to 450 BC. ”