before the mast

English

Adjective

before the mast (not comparable)

1. (literally) Having living quarters in the forecastle of a vessel
2. Describing seamen rather than officers

   Before making lieutenant, he sailed before the mast for five years

   • 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “chapter 33”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC:

     [...] but under certain circumstances (night watches on a whaling ground) the command of the ship’s deck is also his; therefore the grand political maxim of the sea demands, that he should nominally live apart from the men before the mast, and be in some way distinguished as their professional superior; [...]