the.com/tall ship

means A large traditional sailing vessel, typically square-rigged or gaff-rigged with multiple masts, built in the old style of ships that crossed oceans under canvas alone.

from The phrase comes straight from old seafaring speech — 'tall' meaning tall-masted, a ship whose rigging towered high above the deck. It shows up in English maritime writing for centuries, including the famous Masefield line 'I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky, / And all I ask is a tall ship.' The term was later formalized when tall ship races and sail-training organizations in the 20th century needed a category name for these grand old-rig vessels, cementing 'tall ship' as the term for anything with masts that make modern sailors crane their necks.