How sailing ships survived lightning strikes

How were Age of Sail ships protected against lightning?

Masts could be shattered by rapidly expanding moisture, while a conductor to submerged metal offered a possible protective route; the timing of its adoption remains uncertain here.

Lightning can flash-boil moisture inside a wooden mast, and the expanding water can burst the timber apart into dangerous debris. A possible discharge path runs down toward the keel or across the wet exterior of the hull to the sea. Those details are recalled with some uncertainty. A conductor running from a rod aloft to submerged metal is also suggested as protection toward the end of the Age of Sail, although its historical use is not established firmly in the exchange.