Retractable Masts

[Bentonville]

I keep reading 'retractable masts'.

I can understand lower profile in combat. Short of getting under low bridges I can't think of another reason for this.

 

[RedRover]

Retractable masts were evidently always around in some fashion. Some scholars are convinced this depiction from the Greek "francois vase" of about 550 B.C. shows a retractable mast.

Louis Casson's "Ships and Seamanship in the Ancient World" (1971) suggests ancient warships particularly in that age occasionally had retractable masts.

During the 1860s there was also stripping the masts for action...
Here's a thread on that subject:
CivilWarTalk: landing of masts...