Naut. [Said by sailors to be so called because the fifer sat on this rail while the anchor was being got in.] † a. ‘Rails forming the upper fence of the bulwarks on each side of the quarter-deck and poop in men-of-war’ (Adm. Smyth, 1867) (obs.). b. The rail round the main-mast, encircling both it and the pumps and furnished with belaying pins for the running rigging.
1721–1800. Bailey, Fife Rails.
1804. A. Duncan, Mariner’s Chron., Pref., 19. Drift-rails, fife-rails, sheer-rails, waist-rails, etc.
1881. W. C. Russell, Ocean Free-Lance, II. iv. 168. [It] whitened the rigging and the fife-rails.
