A Part of a Ship?

Question

What is this part called (the only picture I could find was from Pirates of the Caribbean, and its kind of hard to see).

http://screenmusings.org/CurseOfTheBlackPearl/pages/POTC_CotBP_0797.htm

In the movie it was being turned.

What is it called and what does it do?

Answer 1

This is the capstan, used to heave up the anchor by manual crew power and other heavy lifting.

Answer 2

Well... these guys had the right answer... just not all of it.

Yes, the picture shown is of a capstan, and Yes, the capstan was used as a walk-around man-powered winch, and it was used for raising the anchor... this is true.

However, the majority of its use was for lifting other things... not the anchor...  the capstan was also used for houseing and unhousing masts, and getting those very heavy yards (the large heavy wooden timbers or "booms" to which the canvass was attached) up and down the masts. It was also used to raise shrouds... and used to raise heavy freight that otherwise could not be carried on board.

      In fact, the "capstan" on these early ships was a very ingenious device... not only was there a walk around man powered winch on the main deck, there was also one on the deck below... either could be used singularly, or for extra help, both could be used to lift a single heavy load (which doubled the man power).  Furthermore, the capstan on which the anchor was attached, could be "chocked" so that the anchor remained in place, which the capstan was used to raise the yards...

good pics and descriptions at:

http://www.crewdog.net/ship/rose/work.ht...

Happy & Safe Boating!

Answer 3

It's called a capstan and it's used as a pulley system for the anchor.  When a ship drops anchor, it takes a bit of manpower back then to wind the anchor back up and onto the ship's frame so as to not drag the anchor on the ocean floor and get the ship stuck.

Answer 4

its the midship   cool pics  thanks