Where did we get the term “tall ship” for a large, multi-masted sailing vessel?
A. It was swiped from a line in a poem by John Masefield: “All I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by.” Masefield wrote in the early 20th century, when big sailing ships were well on the way out. Captain Kirk quotes the line in one of the original Star Trek episodes, which has probably done more to popularize it than anything else in the entire century.
