Top (sailing ship)
（重定向自Fighting top）
![The foretop of the Prince William. Note the futtock shrouds (white-painted rods angling inwards) and jacob's ladders; extending upwards are the topmast shrouds with their rope ratlines.](/Images/godic/202501/13/Prince_William_foretop1302.jpg")
![Diagram of a mast & shrouds (red), top with futtock shrouds (blue), and topmast and its shrouds (green). Shrouds are represented as translucent panels; in reality they would consist of many individual lines.](/Images/godic/202501/13/TraditionalMastAndTopmast-cgi1302.jpg")
The Top on a traditional square rigged ship, is the platform at the upper end of each (lower) mast. This is not the masthead "crow's nest" of the popular imagination – above the mainmast (for example) is the main-topmast, main-topgallant-mast and main-royal-mast, so that the top is actually about 1/4 to 1/3 of the way up the mast as a whole.