What the "backstay" is to the inhabitant of the district around Lydd, the stilts are to the lonely dwellers in the Landes.    From Wordnik.com.  [Faces and Places] Reference

The man got out by the royal backstay, and lit his flare.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Ghost Pirates] Reference

Once I cleared the backstay, I surfaced, and I was right next to Steve.    From Wordnik.com.  [CNN Transcript Jun 9, 2008] Reference

Tathagres paused in the stern, a hand posed on the backstay for balance.    From Wordnik.com.  [Stormwarden]

November 7th, 2009 at 11: 42 pm PST techcrunch. com halla backstay cool f life. reply.    From Wordnik.com.  [WWWTWITTER.com: Best Website Ever] Reference

It snapped out from the maintopgallant backstay, a long, shot-torn streamer of sable without device.    From Wordnik.com.  [Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror: This Forsaken Earth - Paul Kearney] Reference

Abruptly, as he fired his last shot, I was aware of an indistinct Something, gliding down the starboard royal backstay.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Ghost Pirates] Reference

One hand on the backstay, one foot on the stern rail, I hopped aboard and felt that familiar rush of anything-is-possible.    From Wordnik.com.  [Grown Man Cries] Reference

Out on the crosstrees, I could see, by the light from my lantern, that Plummer was holding in a dazed fashion to the backstay.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Ghost Pirates] Reference

He seemed to feel better then, and he went and stood on the afterdeck behind Sarah, holding onto the backstay to steady himself.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Short Forever]

It did no good; the backstay was now farther away.    From Wordnik.com.  ["Where Angels Fear to Tread" and Other Stories of the Sea] Reference

Setting every shroud and backstay singing shanties to the stars?.    From Wordnik.com.  [Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 159, 1920-11-17] Reference

Quick as lightning a ship's boy was seen gliding down a backstay.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Heir of Kilfinnan A Tale of the Shore and Ocean] Reference

Yet he wondered why he could not reach out and grasp the backstay.    From Wordnik.com.  ["Where Angels Fear to Tread" and Other Stories of the Sea] Reference

Rodgers 'statement cut away a backstay and went into the mainmast.    From Wordnik.com.  [Sea Power in its Relations to the War of 1812 Volume 1] Reference

But what is this I see hereaway, atween the backstay and the vang?.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Red Rover] Reference

A man scrambled on to the rail, and with an arm clasping a backstay hailed me.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Frozen Pirate] Reference

Synthetic leather and textile shell with articulating cuff and full-length backstay.    From Wordnik.com.  [Zappos.com: new styles] Reference

They climbed everywhere, up or down, on a sail or its leach, a single rope or a backstay.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Grain Ship] Reference

Her starboard backstay had been shot away, her topmast was wounded, though it still stood.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Rival Crusoes] Reference

Oh, he's a pearl of purest ray serene, if anybody should slide down a backstay and ask you.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Mutiny of the Elsinore] Reference

"Shanghaied!" he repeated as he reeled to the rail and caught at a backstay to steady himself.    From Wordnik.com.  [Those Who Smiled And Eleven Other Stories] Reference

Cut away a brace or a backstay, now, aboard that Frenchman, and away would go a whole heap of his canvas.    From Wordnik.com.  [Under the Meteor Flag Log of a Midshipman during the French Revolutionary War] Reference

Just as he spoke, Tommy Rebow was hunting the animal from shroud to backstay, up over the mast-head and down again.    From Wordnik.com.  [Sunshine Bill] Reference

I hastened aft to where Smellie stood grasping the maintopmast backstay, and was greeted by him with the characteristic remark of.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Congo Rovers A Story of the Slave Squadron] Reference

Amidships, Lord Earlscourt and two other men were playing, by the light of a lantern slung from the backstay, a game called poker.    From Wordnik.com.  [Phyllis of Philistia] Reference

I saw, however, that he was not really angry, and I fancy that I gained some credit with him by the way I had sprung on to the backstay.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Two Whalers Adventures in the Pacific] Reference

In both fore and main-top we had eight-and-twenty as smart chaps as ever put their foot to a rattling, or slid down by an a'ter backstay.    From Wordnik.com.  [Jacob Faithful] Reference