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Examples
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While some say that the schooner Wyoming was the longest wooden ship at 450 feet long, its length was measured from jib-boom tip to spanker-boom tip.
The Ark Boyd Morrison 2009
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As I came up the ladder I saw against the flushed sky — for the sun was just rising — the broad back and red hair of the captain, and over his shoulder the puma spinning from a tackle rigged on to the mizzen spanker-boom.
The Island of Doctor Moreau Herbert George 2006
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We lost our mizen-mast, in a storm, in the Bay of Biscay, and a dreadful blow on the head, from the spanker-boom, felled me to the deck, with a fracture of the skull.
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The ship paid off, but at a critical moment the spanker-boom sheet fouled the wheel; still, we managed to get the vessel round, but scarcely were the braces belayed and the ship on the starboard tack, when she struck the ground broadside on.
Heroes of the Goodwin Sands Thomas Stanley Treanor
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As I came up the ladder I saw against the flushed sky -- for the sun was just rising -- the broad back and red hair of the captain, and over his shoulder the puma spinning from a tackle rigged on to the mizzen spanker-boom.
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Presently the skipper, having gone as far to one side of his straight course as he thinks proper, gives the caution; whereupon the braces are taken off the pins and coiled down on deck, all clear for running, while the spanker-boom is hauled in amidships so that the spanker may feel the wind and press the stern a-lee, which helps the bow to windward.
All Afloat A Chronicle of Craft and Waterways William Charles Henry Wood 1905
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There was a considerable swell on; and, as the sea lifted us ahead, the enemy's bowsprit carried away our mizzen-shrouds, stern davits, and spanker-boom, and he hung upon our larboard quarter.
The Naval History of the United States Volume 2 (of 2) Willis J. Abbot 1898
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He worked like a common sailor, loading and firing a favorite twenty-four-pound gun; and once, while on his knees, sighting the piece, a shot from the "Confiance" cut in two the spanker-boom, a great piece of which fell heavily upon the captain's head, stretching him senseless upon the deck.
The Naval History of the United States Volume 2 (of 2) Willis J. Abbot 1898
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I heard the rattling of the boarding-pikes, too, as they were cut adrift from the spanker-boom, and fell upon the decks.
Great Pirate Stories Joseph Lewis French 1897
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As I came up the ladder I saw against the flushed sky -- for the sun was just rising -- the broad back and red hair of the captain, and over his shoulder the puma spinning from a tackle rigged on to the mizzen spanker-boom.
The Island of Doctor Moreau Herbert George 1896
chained_bear commented on the word spanker-boom
"...a tolerably dismal sight—jib-boom, spritsail yard and bumpkins carried away, bowsprit and foreyard sprung, and spanker-boom broken, together with a great deal of cordage..."
--Patrick O'Brian, The Letter of Marque, 68
February 27, 2008