Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found athttp://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=rmir20

Download by: [New York University] Date: 11 February 2016, At: 09:07

The Mariner's MirrorThe International Quarterly Journal of The Society for NauticalResearch

ISSN: 0025-3359 (Print) 2049-680X (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rmir20

THE DESIGN OF WINCHES USED AT SEA IN THE1800s

John H. Harland

To cite this article: John H. Harland (1991) THE DESIGN OF WINCHES USED AT SEA IN THE1800s, The Mariner's Mirror, 77:2, 151-165, DOI: 10.1080/00253359.1991.10656346

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00253359.1991.10656346

Published online: 22 Mar 2013.

Submit your article to this journal

Article views: 7

View related articles

Citing articles: 1 View citing articles

The Mariner's Mirror, Vol. 77, No. 2 (May 1991), 151-165 1 5 1

THE DESIGN OF WINCHES USED AT SEAIN THE 1800s

By John H. Harland

WHAT follows is not an attempt to describe the development of the ship'scapstan and windlass in any definitive way, but rather an effort tosystematize the answers to some questions that presented themselves

during several years of desultory research on the topic. Although, in passing, mentionis made of winches that were in use as recently as thirty years ago, our attention ismainly focused on developments in winch design over the century 1750-1850.

CLASSIFICATION

I use the word 'winch' non-specifically, as a handy generic term including bothcapstans and windlasses - a capstan being a winch whose axis is vertical while thebarrel, or drum, of a windlass is horizontal. Broadly speaking, winches may bedivided into Type A, 'reel-winches', and Type B, 'traction-winches'. In a reel-winch,the end of the rope is firmly secured to the barrel and as it is wound on, the numberof turns on the drum increases until at some point the drum or barrel can take nomore, i.e. the winch has a finite capacity (Fig. 1: A, B, F).

With a Type B traction-winch two or three turns of the rope are taken round thebarrel, and the grip depends solely on the friction between rope and barrel. As thebarrel rotates the number of turns remains constant, and in theory there is no limit tothe length of rope which can be handled by the device. In practice limits are imposedby the space available to store the rope (Fig. 1: D, E, G). With this kind of winch,tension has to be applied to the 'hauling', or 'inboard', end, technically known as'holding on', 'holding off, or 'hauling off (Fig. 1: L).

Type C, the early type of steering wheel, is a special variant of the reel-winch, one inwhich the number of turns of rope remains constant. This difference is explainedbecause it in fact comprises two-reel winches, back to back. As the wheel is turned therope coming off one end of the drum is balanced by that coming on at the other end,hence the number of turns remains the same: three and a half in our sketch (Fig. 1: C).

Type D, used only with chain, uses a specially shaped chain-flange to grip the links,and might be considered a special non-slip kind of traction-winch. The chain can beengaged for as little as half a turn or so, on the barrel, and an infinite length of chaincan be handled (Fig. 1: I, J, K).

SHAPE OF DRUM

In all four types the barrel need not be a true cylinder. With the non-cylindricalvariations of Types A and B, this shape is commonly the frustum of a cone, while inthe case of Type C the drum may be ovoid or biconcave in section (Fig. 1: F, G. H).In Types A and C a helical groove may be found on the barrel. These, however, are

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

New

Yor

k U

nive

rsity

] at

09:

07 1

1 Fe

brua

ry 2

016

152 THE DESIGN OF WINCHES USED AT SEA IN THE 1800S

never found in Type B winches, although circumferential grooves are found in oneparticular sub-group of Type B winches, the 'double-drum non-surging' type.

Drums of non-cylindrical shapes are adopted for a variety of reasons. Shaw &Hastie's patent topsail-halliard winch (Type A) had a conoid barrel, to equalize theforce that had to be applied to the hand-crank, at top and bottom of the yard's travel,the greatest effort being required when the yard was almost up (Fig. 1: F; Fig. 2: E).Type B was cone-shaped, or sometimes of biconcave section to facilitate 'surging', ofwhich more in a moment (Fig. 1: G). Type C was specially shaped in the hope ofapproximately matching the shift of rope off and on the barrel (which, with acylindrical barrel, would have been essentially linear) to the movement of the end ofthe tiller, which was arciform (Fig. 1: H).1

The reel-type winch was ideal for any task involving short repetitive lifts, forexample the cargo-winch, but could be adapted for applications involving substantiallengths of wire, for example the trawl-winch, the minesweeping-winch, or the Dutchwhaling-winch, which began to displace the traditional Norwegian pattern in theearly 1950s.

SURGING

We have noted that with Type B the number of turns remain constant, although theposition of these on the barrel changes as the winch turns. If the rope does not slip onthe barrel and one turn does not ride up over another, the turns 'walk' along thebarrel, eventually coming to one end. At this point, before rotation can continue, theload has to be secured in some way, the turns slackened off and shifted to the otherend. This shifting of the turns corresponds to the fleeting of a tackle and is called'surging'. A taper facilitates this shifting and actually encourages the turns to shiftspontaneously in the proper direction, in small increments, thus postponing thenecessity of a major movement (Fig. 1: D, E, G).

The inconvenience of surging, as it applied to the hemp anchor-cable, becameirrelevant with the introduction of chain-cable and the Type D anchor-winch. Thishad a solid grip on the anchor-chain, and by using appropriate guide-rollers thenecessity of holding off the inboard end was obviated.

In the case of a cylindrical traction-winch with a smooth surface we intuitivelyrealize that the ability of the rope to grip the barrel is inversely proportional to theload, and depends on its coefficient of friction with the material of the barrel, thenumber of turns taken, and the tension applied to the 'inboard' end. In fact there is anice mathematical relationship between these factors, which may be expressed:

T n6

~T = e

where T = tension on the loaded end; t = holding off tension; e = base of Napierianlogarithms; (X = coefficient of friction; G = wrap-angle in radians.

'WRAP-ANGLE'

'Wrap-angle' or 'lap-angle' measures the contact between the rope and barrel, a fullturn amounting to 2pi (6.28) radians, with each turn increasing the grip exponentially,

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

New

Yor

k U

nive

rsity

] at

09:

07 1

1 Fe

brua

ry 2

016

THE DESIGN OF WINCHES USED AT SEA IN THE 1800S 153

Fig. 1

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

New

Yor

k U

nive

rsity

] at

09:

07 1

1 Fe

brua

ry 2

016

154 THE DESIGN OF WINCHES USED AT SEA IN THE 1800S

i.e. two turns are not just twice but many times as effective as a single turn. Howeverin a great many applications capstan barrels are not smooth but ridged or fitted with'whelps'. It is clear that in such a whelped capstan the wrap-angle is very muchdiminished, and therefore it is reasonable to ask why whelps would ever be fitted(Fig. 1:M,N).

WHELPS

For some practical advice on this point I sought help from two firms well known asmanufacturers of winches: Thomas Reid & Sons, Paisley, and NEI Clarke ChapmanLtd, Gateshead. It appears, as a practical matter, that a capstan with whelps simplygives a better grip than one with a smooth barrel, and although the number of turnsand the coefficient of friction no doubt are significant factors, in the working of thewhelped version the equation above does not apply with the same exactitude as whenwe have continuous contact between contiguous surfaces. The whelps act as a sort ofprimitive sprocket, biting into and internally deforming the rope; we might comparetheir action with the improved road traction that a car would have with treaded tyreson a rough road. This principle can be carried to extremes. In 1838 a locomotive wasbuilt in Boston which had wheels with 105 flats milled on them, the intention beingto prevent slipping.2 Nowadays, where capstans are handling wire and synthetic fibreropes, replaceable whelps are sometimes fitted, but this lies outside our present study.

BEND-RADIUS

The capstan has to be large enough to match the bend-radius of the rope, somethingwhich increases with the cable's size and stiffness. In the case of Victory, the maincapstan was about 4 feet in diameter and capable of handling a hemp messenger 15inches in circumference. Had the capstan been completely solid instead of built up,using whelps around a central spindle, it would have been inconveniently heavy andthe task of heaving round extremely difficult.

WINDLASS

In smaller merchantmen of the 1700s and 1800s, the anchor was hove up with awindlass. Two full turns of hemp cable were taken round the barrel, which wastapered down towards the sides. Surging was done from the centre outwards, i.e. theoutboard end was towards the centre. In earlier days the barrel was of octagonalsection, the faces mortised to take the handspikes, and until about 1800, the pawl also.With the introduction of chain cable the faces were fitted with whelps, which actedlike primitive snugs (Fig. 1: K). I think it would have been usual to continue takingtwo turns of chain around the barrel, even though one turn would have sufficed, ifthe inter-whelp distance matched the links of the chain. In the case of hemp cable therope came on and off the top, to facilitate hauling off, while chain was sometimes ledround the bottom of the barrel (Fig. 2: C, D).

DIRECTION OF TAPER

The ship-capstan is invariably tapered upwards, narrow above, and hence the turnsare fleeted upward. We can suggest two reasons for this. First, it would be easier to

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

New

Yor

k U

nive

rsity

] at

09:

07 1

1 Fe

brua

ry 2

016

THE DESIGN OF WINCHES USED AT SEA IN THE 1800S 155

Fig. 2

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

New

Yor

k U

nive

rsity

] at

09:

07 1

1 Fe

brua

ry 2

016

156 THE DESIGN OF WINCHES USED AT SEA IN THE 1800S

hold off at waist rather than at foot level. Second, the men heaving round would haveto step over the cable. The 'inboard' end of the rope was held off by a few hands asthere was not much tension on it. The 'outboard' end, however, took the whole strainof the anchor and cable, and would be bar-taut. Consequently things were bestarranged when this end was below to start with, and moving lower as the turnsworked their way down the barrel (Fig. 2: A). An exception to the rule of upwardtaper is provided by what I have called 'the upside-down capstan' in the MuseodelPOpera del Duomo, in Florence (Fig. 2: B).3 This was set up on a scaffold platformto drag blocks of stone up an inclined plane, the latter being pitched at a sufficientlylow angle to render any type of pawl unnecessary. If the rope had been arranged inthe ordinary way, it would have fouled the angle between the platform and the planeas the turns worked down. This could have been obviated by using a leading block,but tapering the barrel the 'wrong' way and fleeting the turns up offered an evensimpler solution. With the windlass the pawl-bitt is centrally placed. When the straincomes on the pawl it is best if this were applied at the thickest part of the windlassbarrel. So the barrel was thickest at the centre, and the turns were fleeted towards thesides of the windlass.

GEARED CAPSTANS

Although there is a geared capstan in the Royal Model collection in the TekniskaMuseet, Stockholm, I do not believe anything of this sort was used at sea (Fig. 3: A).The second barrel is intended to gear down the capstan and increase its power, andthis capstan is unrelated to the double-drum winches to be discussed later. The RijksMuseum, Amsterdam, has a fine collection of model capstans, which includes severalgeared versions. In 1771 A. G. Eckhard, a Dutchman, devised a capstan with sun-and-planet gears connecting two drumheads, which rotated in opposite directions. Ifthe bars were used to turn one head the machine acted as a common capstan, but ifthe other head were employed the power increased threefold (Fig. 2: A; Fig. 3: D; Fig.6: E). In 1772 a capstan of this type was installed on board HMS Defiance in England.A capstan with a double head of the Eckhard type is shown in W.H. Harfield's patentno. 1347 as late as 1860, although referred to as 'Brown's patent power capstan' ratherthan mentioning Eckhard.

PHILIPPS CAPSTAN

Shifting the bars from one set of pigeon-holes to another was a nuisance, and in 1819Philipps improved the original Eckhard capstan by fitting it with a single head andmoving the gears below deck. The gear ratio was selected by connecting anddisconnecting the appropriate parts of the machine with drop pins, two in the headand two below between the whelps. To use as a simple capstan the upper pins werelifted out and the lower ones dropped in. In 1832 no fewer than 230 English shipswere fitted with the Philipps capstan (Fig. 3: C). An example of the Philipps capstan isto be seen in Foudroyant, and on page 153 of Peter Goodwin's Construction andFitting of the Sailing Man-of-War 1650-1850 there is a picture of the chain control-ling one of its lower drop pins. James Brown patented a crank-driven capstan in 1833(pat. no. 6385). My sketch is of a model in the Rijks Museum (Fig. 3: B). In the samecollection there is a similar version which could be driven by either cranks or bars.

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

New

Yor

k U

nive

rsity

] at

09:

07 1

1 Fe

brua

ry 2

016

THE DESIGN OF WINCHES USED AT SEA IN THE 1800S 157

IB Bi

Fig. 3

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

New

Yor

k U

nive

rsity

] at

09:

07 1

1 Fe

brua

ry 2

016

158 THE DESIGN OF WINCHES USED AT SEA IN THE 1800S

GEARED WINDLASSES

The traditional windlass, found in merchantmen of the 1700s, was turned withhandspikes thrust into square holes in the barrel. As early as 1794 WilliamHutchinson was suggesting using levers and a ratchet - 'ragged-wheels' as he calledthem. There were versions with fore-and-aft levers, and patents were applied forusing various arrangements for driving the horizontal windlass with a gearedvertical capstan (Fig. 2: C). A very common arrangement in the latter half of the1800s, occurring in many forms, was an athwartship lever that worked after thefashion of a pump-handle (Fig. 2: D; Fig. 6: F). One version was known as 'Tysackand Dobinson's compound lever windlass'. In the early 1900s this kind of windlasswas commonly known as the 'Armstrong patent'. This was a jocular reference tothe way it was powered (the poor step-sister of the steam-windlass) rather than asurname.4

THE NON-SURGING CAPSTAN

When a sailing warship hove up its anchor, with a messenger nippered to the cable,the messenger 'walked' down the barrel until it could go no further. At that point thecable was stoppered, the turns slackened off and shifted up the tapered barrel beforeheaving-in could continue. Contemporary accounts indicate that this repeatedinterruption of the heaving-in process lasted about 15 minutes. In 1741 the FrenchAcademy of Sciences offered a prize for the best way of obviating this difficulty: thedevelopment of a cabestan sans choquer, or 'non-surging capstan'.

Non-surging capstans can be assigned one of two families, 'double-drum' or'inclined plane', and overwhelmingly the proposals submitted to the Academybelonged to the first category, embodying an inclined ramp that 'jogged' the turnscontinually upward. In effect the messenger was surged, but this was done in smallincrements rather than all at once.

INCLINED PLANE VERSIONS

There are examples in the Rijks Museum collection representing capstans designed byAsmus, du Sahy, and Forfait (in Fig. 4, respectively A, B, and C). Du Sahy uses a rod,with a caster pulley on the lower end and two hooks that protruded out of thewhelps. The lower hook nudged the turns up while the upper one could be used topush the rod down if it failed to drop of its own weight. Asmus used L-shapedwooden chocks to accomplish the same thing. Forfait's elegant design used roller-bearings to support a ring or collar, which lay beneath the lowest turn of the rope. Acapstan using a similar principle was invented and built by Louis Frederic FrancoisDavid, of Havre, and patented in the name of John Henry Johnson, in London in1855 (pat. no. 2677). An example is still to be seen on the terrace of the port at Biarritz(Fig. 4: D). This machine is referred to in Bonnefoux, Dictionnaire de Marine aVoiles.

M David du Havre a imagine d'adapter aux cabestans ordinaires, aux treuils, et aux guindeaux,une rondelle de bois ou de metal taille en helice, au moyen de laquelle, virer indefimment auCabestan, sans qu'il y ait ni secousses, ni risques, ni arrets. Un collier en fonte et une came en ferque, plus rec,emment, M David a fixe a la cloche du Cabestan au-dessus de l'helice, relevent lecable ou le grelin a mesure qu'il s'enroule . . .'.5

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

New

Yor

k U

nive

rsity

] at

09:

07 1

1 Fe

brua

ry 2

016

THE DESIGN OF WINCHES USED AT SEA IN THE 1800S 159

Fig. 4

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

New

Yor

k U

nive

rsity

] at

09:

07 1

1 Fe

brua

ry 2

016

160 THE DESIGN OF WINCHES USED AT SEA IN THE 1800S

In England Thomas James Plucknett in 1801 likewise suggested castered lifters (pat.no. 2483), more or less on the du Sahy principle, but I do not believe his capstan wasever built.

DOUBLE-DRUM VERSION

Although capstans using the inclined plane offered one practical solution to theproblem, there was another way round the difficulty. If one could somehow 'split'the single barrel into two halves the turns could remain in the same position, and thiscan be achieved simply and elegantly by introducing a second, or supplementary,barrel, giving us the 'double-drum non-surging capstan'.

DOUMET

Among the many unsuccessful submissions to the Academy was one made by a grena-dier officer called Doumet. He proposed a capstan with two grooved barrels, arranged asshown (Fig. 5: A). This is his 'geared' version in which the drums rotate in oppositesenses. He also proposed an alternative 'free-wheel' version in which the grooves keepthe individual turns from shifting sideways and rubbing against each other. In the eventthe ingenuity and elegance of his proposal was not recognized and his submissionmouldered forgotten in the files of the Academy. As we shall see, however, otherinventors were to arrive at the same solution independently, and apply it successfully.

BOSWELL

In 1807 in England the Society of Arts voted its Gold Medal to Mr J.W. Boswell, forhis solution to the problem.6 It will be seen that, in principle, it is essentially areinvention of Doumet's capstan but using collars rather than grooves to prevent theturns rubbing against each other (Fig. 5: B, C). In both Doumet and Boswell capstansthe barrels were geared together and rotated in opposite directions, so the ropespassed between the barrels in a cross-cross fashion.

BETANCOURT

The French engineer Augustin Betancourt (1760-1826) devised and built a double-drum capstan for use in the construction of large buildings. This was in fact enclosedin a sturdy framework, which I have omitted for clarity (Fig. 5: D). Not only did hearrive at this idea independently rather than through any knowledge of Doumet'ssuggestion but his invention very likely antedates BoswelPs proposal also. TheFrench engineer further refined things in a significant fashion. By introducing a thirdgear-wheel he caused the drums to rotate in the same direction, with the rope passingdirectly from one to the other, in parallel fashion (Fig. 5: G). This plan was followedin all subsequent versions of the double-drum winch, mentioned below (Fig. 5: B).

ASHTON AND SVEND FOYN

As far as the technological development of non-surging winches goes, it was in fact thedouble-drum version, initially disregarded by the pundits of the Academy, which wasto have the longer life. In 1862 J.P. Ashton exhibited the double-drum winch shown,

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

New

Yor

k U

nive

rsity

] at

09:

07 1

1 Fe

brua

ry 2

016

THE DESIGN OF WINCHES USED AT SEA IN THE 1800S 161

H

bulL

I l l l l l l

Fig. 5

=Q

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

New

Yor

k U

nive

rsity

] at

09:

07 1

1 Fe

brua

ry 2

016

162 THE DESIGN OF WINCHES USED AT SEA IN THE 1800S

at the Industrial Exhibition in London (Fig. 5: F). This was a steam-driven version ofBetancourt's winch, turned on its side. In its turn Ashton's winch was almost certainlythe inspiration for the double-drum whaling winch, developed by the NorwegianSvend Foyn, and shown in his patent application of 1873. It is in this incarnation that itwill be familiar to those who have visited the museum-ship Ran IX at Bremerhaven(Fig. 5: J, K). Although a Dutch reel-type whaling-winch began to displace them in the1950s, winches using this principle remained in use in catchers until the last days oflarge-scale commercial whaling, in the early 1960s. Over the century 1860-1960 severalhundred of these winches were manufactured, and this constituted the single mostimportant application of the principle.

OTHER APPLICATIONS

It turns up in other guises as well. In the late 1800s small winches of the type shownin Fig. 5: G were in use on building sites in Belgium.7 Models in the DeutschesSchiffahrts Museum, Bremerhaven, and the Sjohistoriska Museet, Stockholm, provethat double-drum capstans were fitted in German light cruisers, and Swedishtorpedo-boats in the early 1900s (Fig. 5: E). The sweep-winch fitted in Germanminesweepers of the late 1930s also featured the double-drum idea (Fig. 5: H, I).

There are two ironies in the Doumet story. First, that after so much ingenuity hadbeen expended on methods of avoiding the labour of fleeting hemp anchor cable, theintroduction of chain cable and chain-flange capstans executed a technological end-run round the difficulty, so to speak, and rendered the 'surging problem' academic.Imagine the disappointment of a brilliant engineer-inventor who, after years of work,has just perfected the absolutely unimprovable slide-rule, whereupon some othergenius patents the electronic pocket calculator! Second, an engineer of, say, 1800would have predicted that future evolution of the ship's capstan would demandfurther refinement of the inclined plane principle. In fact Doumet's double-drumidea, totally neglected in 1741, represented the direction in which the non-surgingcapstan was to develop over the next 150 years.

CHAIN-CABLE

In the early 1800s the technology of handling chain anchor-cable was being workedout independently on both sides of the Channel. In France the development of acapstan capable of handling chain was so closely associated with a naval officernamed Barbotin that the device was called a 'Barbotin' in his honour. In England thenames Brown and Harfield were preeminent. Initially a chain-messenger was used,the unstudded links of which were engaged by the teeth of a sprocket wheel at thebase of the capstan (Fig. 6: B, D). This was shortly followed by the introduction of acapstan with recesses or 'snugs' that grasped the links of the anchor-cable itself. Intheory one link would be enough but in fact a half-turn of chain was wrapped aroundthe capstan, contact being ensured by strategically placed rollers (Fig. 6: A, C).

GRYLLS

The capstan still to be seen on board Foudroyant, sketched in Fig. 6: A, was built byBrown and could handle chain in two ways. The upper section featured armoured

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

New

Yor

k U

nive

rsity

] at

09:

07 1

1 Fe

brua

ry 2

016

THE DESIGN OF WINCHES USED AT SEA IN THE 1800S 163

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

New

Yor

k U

nive

rsity

] at

09:

07 1

1 Fe

brua

ry 2

016

164 THE DESIGN OF WINCHES USED AT SEA IN THE 1800S

whelps around which could be taken a turn or two of chain messenger. Whelps of thisparticular shape were patented by John Isaiah Grylls in 1840, pat. no. 8767 (also seenin the windlass model Fig. 2: D). He claimed that this pattern allowed smootherspontaneous shifting of the turns compared with a whelp of curved shape. A capstanmodel in the Amsterdam collection nonetheless refers to them as 'Brown whelps'. Inpat. no. 15, 1854, Grylls proposed working a hollow in the base of the whelp, thebetter to grip the links of chain.

BROWN AND HARFIELD

The base of the Foudroyant capstan is fitted with what we would today call a 'gypsy'or 'wildcat', allowing it to handle the anchor-cable directly without using a messen-ger. Again this is associated with the name Brown; in one of Harfield's patentapplications he refers to it as 'Brown's chain-flange'. Moveable rollers were anessential adjunct to this type of arrangement, guiding the chain round the capstan, thelinks being gripped in the snugs and stripped out by a chain-lifter. The type ofcapstan in Foudroyant was sometimes known as the 'Brown-Harfield' capstan.William Horatio Harfield applied for several patents in this line, two in 1859, no.1629, for a capstan and riding-bitts made of wrought-iron, and no. 1695 for a chain-messenger using studded-links instead of 'unstayed (unstudded) chain, as heretofore'.The same year he patented a chain-flange (no. 1726) with adjustable stops, whichcould grip chains, with links of different proportions, an idea which is repeated in pat.no. 1347 in 1860. Harfield also patented the idea of having two chain-flanges, onesmall for the messenger, and one large for the cable.

I think Brown, with whom Harfield was associated, was the same Thomas Brownwho in 1847 patented (no. 11,666) a chain stopper. This device is referred to as the'Brown stopper' by Dutch writers such as G.P.J. Mossel, for example.8 However thesaid Thomas was not the only person with the same or similar surname, who madeproposals to do with capstans and chain. We have earlier mentioned James Brownand his geared capstan of 1833. Samuel Browne, as a lieutenant, was instrumental inthe Royal Navy's adoption of chain cable in the early 1800s.9 Joseph Browne, in pat.no. 2564 (1856), suggested using a capstan to turn parallel cams to provide up anddown oscillating motion, and so drive a windlass.

PAWLS

We will briefly consider how one prevented slip-back. In some applications, forinstance Fig. 2: B, friction is sufficient to prevent the load sliding back, but mostlysome sort of ratchet mechanism was necessary. Fig. 6: E is an instructional model ofan Eckhard capstan in the Naval Museum at Karlskrona. Below are two pairs of old-fashioned 'sliding pawls', while four 'drop-pawls' hang from the deck-head andengage teeth on the trundle-head. The rotation of the capstan pushed the sliding-pawlto the side, and it had to be booted into position, at the order Heave and Pawl! Thedrop-pawls were 'automatic', engaging by their own weight, and the pair not in usewere secured to the beams by hooks. Another type of drop-pawl came into fashionlater on, once the manufacture of a cast serrated collar became possible. This type ofpawl was fitted at the base of the capstan, and they could be rested on pull-out pins ifthey needed to be disengaged.

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

New

Yor

k U

nive

rsity

] at

09:

07 1

1 Fe

brua

ry 2

016

THE DESIGN OF WINCHES USED AT SEA IN THE 1800S 165

The pawls on the windlass models in the Rijks Museum are of interest. Fig. 6: Gshows a rather old-fashioned windlass, with a pair of simple pawls engaging notchescut in the barrel. This type of pawl, which engaged only every eighth of a turn, waspotentially dangerous when weighing anchor in bad weather. If the men just failed tocatch the pawl they were in danger of being catapulted forward by their hand-spikesas the vessel rose to the next swell. Consequently William Hutchinson, writing in1794, considered the invention of a ratchet designed to catch every sixteenth of a turna great improvement.10 Fig. 6: F shows a more sophisticated device, with three pawls,one or more of which was continually engaged.

Acknowledgements

In preparing this account I must acknowledgethe generous help of the following people.Prof. Richard S. Hartenberg of NorthwesternUniversity, Evanston, Illinois, has been ex-tremely kind and patient, in a correspondenceof several years' duration, in sorting out manytangled points about winch design. For assis-tance on the practical aspects of whelped versusunwhelped capstans, I would like to thank MrEdwin Cain of North Yorkshire, and MrThomas Reid, technical director of ThomasReid & Sons, Paisley, and Mr. K. Henderson,

chief hydraulics engineer of NEI Clarke Chap-man Ltd, Gateshead. Thanks are also due toMichael J. Whitley for help in the matter of theGerman sweep-winch; Mr Bas Kist of the RijksMuseum, Amsterdam, for much kind assistanceregarding the capstan models; Ole LisbergJensen who showed me round the attic of theKarlskrona Museum; the staff of the ScienceReference & Information Service of the BritishLibrary, London, for unearthing the patentsmentioned above; and Dr Michael Lindgren ofStockholm, and Robert C. Leavitt, Jr of Miami.

References

1 Harland and Myers, 'Early History ofthe Steering Wheel', Mariner's Mirror 58(1972), 41-68.

2 Scientific American, Jan. 1988.3 Mariner's Mirror 73 (1987), 418.4 Harold A. Underhill, Deep-water Sail

(Glasgow, 1952), 36.5 See also letters from M. Xavier Lacrambe

and M. Michael Turpin in Le Modele Reduit deBateau 292 (1987) and Le Chasse-Maree no.32/45F, 61.

6 W. Burney, New and UniversalDictionary of the Marine (London, 1830), plateVII.

7 The Engineer, Dec. 1889, 519.8 G.P.J. Mossel, Het Schip (Amsterdam,

1859).9 B. Lavery, Arming and Fitting of English

Ships of War 1600-1815, 49.10 W. Hutchinson, Naval Architecture

(Liverpool, 1794), 138.Dow

nloa

ded

by [

New

Yor

k U

nive

rsity

] at

09:

07 1

1 Fe

brua

ry 2

016