What Is a Ship's Windlass?
A windlass serves one or more essential functions on a ship. To understand a windlass, you need to know where on the ship to find one, the purposes to which the crew might apply it, design fundamentals and how a windlass operates.
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Location
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You will find a ship's windlass positioned on the forecastle (pronounced 'fokes-ull') or forward portion of the ship's upper deck.
Purpose
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A ship's windlass's primary purpose is raising and lowering the ship's anchor. Secondarily, crew may use a shipboard windlass for raising and lowering other heavy loads, such as cargo, according to Mysticseaport.org.
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Design
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A ship's windlass is one of two designs commonly used to raise and lower an anchor, the other being a capstan. Whereas capstans use a circular motion to raise and lower anchor chain, windlasses use up-and-down motion.
Manual Operation
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Before motorization, crew members stood at either side of the windlass and grasped horizontal bars mounted in the windlass's framework. As crew on one side pushed down on the bar, crew on the opposite side pulled up on the bar, thus applying a seesawing technique and the pivot principle to letting in or taking out anchor chain.
Power Operation
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Modern windlasses apply the same principles as manually operated windlasses. Hydraulics and power winches, however, operate motorized windlasses.
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References
Resources
- Photo Credit tall ship at dockside image by Kenneth Sponsler from Fotolia.com
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Comments
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Thank you & very nice.
