What are ship poles called?

Answer 1

Short answer: masts, spars, booms, sprits, yards, or gaffs (all different)

Long answer:

>Spar is just the nautical equivalent of "pole", ie masts, booms yards etc are all spars

>Masts are the vertical ones

>Booms are the ones on the bottom edge of a sail

>Sprits are typically either at the front or back (bow or stern respectively) and are angled slightly up from the horizontal, these are called, simply enough, the bowsprit and sternsprit (note that the sternsprit is a very uncommon spar)

>Yards are like booms, but they are found at the top edge of square sails

>Gaffs are similar to yards, but they are found on "fore and aft" sails (ie not square sails) again at the top edge of the sail. Typically larger ships like schooners (see Bluenose II as an example) will have what's called a "gaff rigged main" sail, which if you look at the picture here: [http://www.schoonerbluenose2.ca/include/images/jpgs/hinesAboutB2_300x206.jpg] is the one at the far right. Saying that it is gaff rigged just means that it is a quadrangle shape instead of triangle, and as such, it has a gaff to hold the top taut.

Hope that helps!