dismasting

"I returned from a voyage to Gibraltar, after inadvertently dismasting a Spanish frigate carrying gunpowder to the French, to find myself something of a hero."

Thief Of Hearts Medeiros, Teresa 1994

On October 20, 1882, a typhoon drove 11 ships and one steamer ashore from their anchorage, besides dismasting another and causing three more to collide.

The Philippine Islands John Foreman

Only by a miracle and the stoutest of standing gear had she escaped dismasting.

Poor Man's Rock Bertrand W. Sinclair 1926

Lord Howe with twenty-five ships of the line had engaged a French fleet of twenty-six ships, dismasting ten, capturing six, and sinking one, the Vengeur.

On the Heroism of the "Vengeur's" Sailors 1906

I thought it better to run no further risk of dismasting her, as there was always a chance so long as they were kept standing.

The Shellback's Progress In the Nineteenth Century Walter Runciman 1892

After a prolonged fight with an enemy as dauntless as herself, with two-thirds of her ship's company laid low, and commanded at length by the youngest lieutenant, she was tackled as the sun went low over the scene of a drawn battle, by a fresh sail errant; and, had it not been for a timely dismasting on board the new-comer, would have been captured or finally sunk then and there.

The Light of Scarthey Egerton Castle 1889

I believe nothing short of dismasting or running the ship ashore would wake us, once we got to sleep.

The Cruise of the Cachalot Round the World After Sperm Whales Frank T. Bullen 1886

Should such an accident occur in the then condition of the weather the total dismasting of the ship would be the least calamity which could reasonably be expected to follow; while it was far more probable that she would either capsize or founder stern foremost.

Under the Meteor Flag Log of a Midshipman during the French Revolutionary War Harry Collingwood 1886

The Casco scarce avowed a shock; but there are times and circumstances when these harbour mouths of inland basins vomit floods, deflecting, burying, and dismasting ships.

In the South Seas Robert Louis Stevenson 1872

Winnebago villages; they float alike the full-rigged merchant ship, the armed cruiser of the State, the steamer, and the beech canoe; they are swept by Borean and dismasting blasts as direful as any that lash the salted wave; they know what shipwrecks are, for out of sight of land, however inland, they have drowned full many a midnight ship with all its shrieking crew.

Moby Dick: or, the White Whale Herman Melville 1855