Cargo ship question

My understanding is that if it is on the centerline it is still a mast, but if paired on either side, it's a kingpost. Kingposts usually brace each other through a cross brace between them, either solid or wire, so don't need bracing with shroulds or stays. But if there is such, wouldn't fore and aft bracing be a stay and to the sides be shrouds?

Kingpost ( one word, king post seems to be from the days of sail and means something else): A pair of masts used to support booms. Also called Pairmasts or Samson Posts.

The ship I am working on has ony single posts for and aft, but pictures still refer to kingposts.  At first I thought there were ratlines on the side stays, but eventually with enough pictures I realized that the shipping line that ran them used to tie ladders to the stays, both fore and aft, on the port side.  I guess that was a handy place to stow them!  The ladders go about two thirds of the way up to the masthead- or is it a kingpost head?

On the ship I was on  (a Navy APA) there were kingposts port and starboard at the forward edge of #1 hatch, a mast on the centerline between #1 and #2 hatches, kingposts port and starboard at the forward edge of #4 hatch, and a mast on the centerline between #4 and #5 hatches. There were no guys, stays, shrouds or whatever you wish to call them at any of the kingposts or the forward mast. Because the after mast had a 30 ton boom on its aft side it did have stays on the #4 hatch. These, as I recall, were spaced symmetrically around the mast to support it no matter which way the boom swung through an arc of 180 degrees. They were not spaced as those on a sailing ship would be so you really can't call them shrouds or stays.

I'll toss in my two bits.

Shroud means cloth, or to clothe.

Shrouds on a ship would seem to refer to the effect of a mass or collection of ropes clothing an otherwise naked spar.

I'd say if it's a single rope or wire, such as a stack stay, it's a stay. If it's one of a collection of same, and reasonably coplanar, then those could be called shrouds.