Most ship owners considered skysails more ornamental than useful.
The Portsmouth-built Noonday had only one skysail, on her mainmast.
On deck the men were sheeting home the skysails.
Her upper spars were on the same scale, tapering away through topmast, topgallant-mast, royal and skysail-masts, until they fined away into slender wands.
But the skysails "stayed put" and indeed every bit of rag was doing noble duty.
A dozen hands were aloft furling the skysails and royals.
The part of the topgallantmast above the topgallant-rigging is called the royal-mast or royal-pole, and the continuation above the royal-rigging, if any, is the skysail-pole.
