Stern
The stern is a back or aft-most element of the ship or boat, technically defined as the area built up over the sternpost, extending upwards from the counter rail to the taffrail. The stern lies opposite the bow, the foremost component of a ship. Originally, the term only returned to the aft port detail of the ship, but eventually came to refer to the entire back of a vessel. The stern end of a ship is subjected with a white navigation light at night.
Sterns on European & American wooden sailing ships began with two principal forms: the square or transom stern & the elliptical, fantail, or merchant stern, and were developed in that order. The hull sections of a sailing ship located ago the stern were composed of a series of U-shaped rib-like frameworks set in a sloped or "cant" arrangement, with the last frame before the stern being called the fashion timbers or fashion pieces, so called for "fashioning" the after part of the ship. This frame is intentional to support the various beams that work up the stern.
In 1817 the British naval architect became the number one sailing ship to sport such a stern. Though a great proceeds over the transom stern in terms of its vulnerability to attack when under fire, elliptical sterns still had apparent weaknesses which the next major stern developing — the iron-hulled cruiser stern — addressed far better and with significantly different materials.