sheave-hole

“Captain Winter gave orders that our larboard broadside should be carefully levelled and trained upon the lugger's mainmast; and while this was being done she fired her starboard broadside at us, one of the shot from which passed through our mainsail, while another struck our fore-topmast about a foot above the topsail-halliard sheave-hole, bringing down the upper part of the spar and the topgallant-sail.”

The Log of a Privateersman

“And, therewith, Milsom left the bridge and ran down on to the fore deck, from which he was presently hoisted to the fore-masthead in a boatswain's chair bent on to a whip rove through the sheave-hole at the masthead.”

The Cruise of the Thetis A Tale of the Cuban Insurrection

“a sort of sheave-hole, Lieutenant Mildmay declared his conviction that they were the masts of a small ship.”

The Log of the Flying Fish A Story of Aerial and Submarine Peril and Adventure