Samson post

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. Nautical: A notched stanchion used in the hold of a merchant ship for fixing purchases or screws in stowing cargo.
2. n. A stanchion fixed between the decks of a man-of-war as an attachment for a purchase-block or leading-block.
3. n. In whaling, a heavy upright timber, firmly secured in the deck, and extending about two feet above it, to which the fluke-chain or fluke-rope was formerly made fast when the whale was towed in to be cut. Most whale-men now make the rope fast to the bitts.
4. n. The upright post supporting the walking-beam in the rope-drilling apparatus used in the Pennsylvania oil-region. See cut under oil-derrick.
5. n. Also written sampson-post.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. (Naut.) In deep-well boring, the post which supports the walking beam of the apparatus.