Naut. [f. STERN sb.3 + FAST sb.2] A rope by which a vessel’s stern is moored.
c. 1569. [see HEADFAST].
1627. Capt. Smith, Sea Gram., vii. 30. A Brest-fast is a rope which is fastened to some part of the Ship forward on, to hold her head to a wharfe or any thing, and a Sterne-fast is the same in the Sterne.
1797. S. James, Narr. Voy., 131. The man … at the time the painter broke, called for another rope, or sternfast.
1835. Marryat, Olla Podr., iii. The stern-fast was thrown on the quay.
1911. Contemp. Rev., March, 283. The boats are either jambed up against her up-stream side or tailing off from their painters and stern-fasts on the down.
