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[Makis]

Hello to you all, i am Makis from Greece and on my fourth boat and learning by my previous mistakes! I am in the process of building a 1:50 scale Bounty. All is going well even though the drawings are as much use as a chocolate teapot but now i have hit a snag. On the front of the deck there is a winch for lifting the anchor and further back is a capstan located between two gratings or hatches that means anyone operating this would have to walk over the gratings. Can anyone tell me what this capstan is used for, i assumed it was for lifting the anchor but i must be wrong, please excuse my ignorance on this subject and all the naval terms but at 77 years old the grey matter is not as sharp as it was i would be most grateful for any replies.
Regards, Makis

[JimG]

Welcome to the group Makis. Not sure what the forward winch (probably what is properly called a windlass) was used for , likely handling mooring lines or help in raising sails and yards on the mast. The capstan would have been used to raise the anchor due to the weight of the anchor as it allows more men to operate it. If they had to walk over the gratings they would have, possibly the grating would have been covered with canvas giving better footing. Also the capstan was used with long capstan bars to give greater leverage so they may have missed the gratings when working the capstan. Unfortunately most of my references are for naval ships and the Bounty was basically a merchant ship taken into the navy.
Jim

[Martin (Admin)]

 These photos from another model of Bounty, ( I know even less than you Makis ), there seems to be only one  capstan / windlass centre aft, is that correct? .... Or is the roller thing also a windlass?







https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot/model-of-the-h-m-s-bounty-hull-built-up-in-plank--661-c-97b425da04

 

[Martin (Admin)]

Also found this:   https://www.boatbuilding.xyz/hms-bounty/info-czi.html

[Martin (Admin)]

 .... Ah!   The roller thing is the anchor windlass / winch, isn't it?









http://www.jotika-ltd.com/Pages/1024768/Heritage_3.htm

[JimG]

I think that what has happened is that the windlass at the bow was used by the original merchant ship to raise it's anchor. When taken over by the Navy to use for the job of transporting breadfruit they will have added the capstan as that is the normal way used by the Navy. The only place they could put it was between the grating and companionway regardless of the inconvenience in use. The Navy preferred the capstan as they had a much larger crew than a merchantman and could man it better.
The way openings could be next to the capstan can be seen on HMS Unicorn at Dundee. The gun deck has the lower half of a double capstan and has a companionway to the upper deck on one side and one down to the accomodation deck on the other. There are also supporting rods to the upper deck beams that had to be removed to allow the capstan to be used. This capstan is on the same level as the hawse holes and would have pulled on the messenger cable with which the anchor cable was hauled, attached by temporary nippers.
Jim

[Makis]

Thank you so much for your replies and photos. The windlass at the bow is attached to the anchor ropes on this model. and i have been informed this afternoon that the capstan was used to hoist heavy sails and spars and i assume to stow heavy cargo into the boat.
I appreciate your time in replying and the photos were most helpful.
Regards, Makis 

[Geoff]

In general I believe that windlasses were indeed used by smaller merchant ships as they gave greater leverage and that beyond a certain size cables cannot be wrapped round a windlass or a capstan. Capstans on larger ships did not pull the anchor cable directly. They had an endless rope round the capstan and a very large pulley block elsewhere in the ship which was typically below decks. There was often a duplicate capstan below decks as well so more men could pull. Attaching to the endless cable were a number of thin ropes tied at intervals to the anchor cable and the endless rope and tied and untied as they got nearer the capstan by the ships boys. The cables were known as nippers and hence the name for a small boy, a nipper!


The large rope cables could be 13" plus (Note a rope is measured by the circumference and not the diameter) so as the capstans pulled the cable in with the nippers it was fed down to the cable locker below decks.


If a ship ran aground they sometimes used a kedge anchor out the stern port dropped say 100 yards away and used the capstans to pull the ship off.


Its actually quite interesting how they managed to sail the old sailing ships.


Cheers


Geoff