Ah, the Victory! Her beauty and power is perhaps matchless. One can only imagine the salty old sea dogs of her day setting sail, running back and forth, climbing up and watching from the crow's nest.
The thing is, the Victory doesn't have a crow's nest. In fact, many square rigged vessels (anything most people would call a "pirate ship")- especially Navel vessels- didn't.
What we see on the Victory- what many of us would call a crow's nest- is in fact called a Top, or Fighting Top.
Its purpose is to provide a platform for the crew, and to give the Marines (or whoever) an elevated position from which they could pick off enemies- or even throw grenades, etc.
Tops are also- and this is important- designed to spread the rigging of the ship so that the shrouds (the ropes that hold the mast from going sideways...the vertical part of the ladder-looking things) could better hold the masts upright- to stop the mast from falling to either side.
A crow's nest, on the other hand, doesn't typically do either of those things (there are probably exceptions, and I am a fallible source of anything but broad information). No, a crow's nest is made for observation. And pretty much just observation.
This picture above is a crow's nest. It's about at the top of the mast, and it's like a basket (some looked like barrels). It's not wide enough to really help much with the mast, it's not a great place to shoot guns. It's basically just the highest point on the ship, and it's got that nice little basket to make it safe. It's a great place to look over the horizon and see what's coming.
There are probably other kinds of crow's nests, but on the whole, but that is typically the difference. My apologies for the title if you already knew the difference- many do. But a lot of people don't.
And if you didn't know, now you do!
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