Tall ship

A tall ship is a sailing ship, generally one with multiple square sails on multiple masts.

The term is a recent one, is said to have been coined by a British journalist (who?), who described a 1956 race of five of the world's remaining square-rigged ships as a "Tall Ships' Race". The race was from Torquay, Cornwall to Lisbon and back, and was to be a last farewell to the era of the great sailing ships, but public interest was so intense that the race organizers founded the Sail Training Association[?] to direct the planning of future events. Since then Tall Ships' Races have occurred annually in various parts of the world, with millions of spectators.

Reference: Harry Bruce, Tall Ships: an Odyssey (Toronto, 2000).