[Tutorial] The Captain of the Capstan

[Foremast Jack]

[pid][/pid]

Tutorial - The Captain of the Capstan

This tutorial is complete

Updated with clearer, more succinct illustrations

Hello all! In the spirit of Horry's recent tutorials based around making more historically accurate nautical vessels I've decided to help him spread the wealth of knowledge that is to be had.

I plan to update this thread every so often with a new capstan design for all the different ships that are of interest to the great patrons of these forums.

Seeing how it seems most applicable I first present the capstan assembly for rated men-of-war from the late 17th century till the end of the age of sail.(Those being frigates and ships-of-the-line.)

Part I: Rated Men-of-War from pre- and post-Napoleonic era.

"'All hands unmoor ship,' said Jack, raising his voice to the pitch of an

order, though every man had been at his station these ten minutes past,

angrily willing the pilot to stop his prating, to stash it, to pipe down;

and instantly the bosun sprung his call.

'See,' cried Stephen, 'the carpenter and his crew put the bars in the

capstan - they ship them, pin them and swift them.'

'They bring the messenger to the capstan: the gunner ties its rounded

ends together. What are they called, Maturin?'

'Let us not be too pedantic, for all love. The whole point is, the

messenger is now endless: it is a serpent that has swallowed its own tail.'

'I cannot see it,' said Standish, leaning far out over the rail. 'Where is

this messenger?'

'Why,' said Martin, 'it is that rope they are putting over the rollers just

beneath us in the waist, a vast loop that goes from the capstan to two

other stout vertical rollers by the hawse-holes and so back.'

'I do not understand. I see the capstan, but there is no rope round it at

all.'

'What you see is the upper capstan,' said Stephen with some

complacency. 'The messenger is twined about the lower part, under the

quarterdeck. But both the lower and the upper part are equipped with

bars: both turn: both heave, as we say. See, they undo the deck-stoppers,

or dog-stoppers as some superficial observers call them - they loosen the

starboard cable, the cable on the right-hand side - they throw off the

turn about the riding-bitts! What force and dexterity!'

'They bring the messenger to the cable - they bind it to the cable with

nippers.'

'Where? Where? I cannot see.'

'Of course not. They are right forward, by the hawse-holes, where the

cable comes into the ship, under the forecastle.'

'But presently,' said Stephen in a comforting tone, 'you will perceive the

cable come creeping aft, led by the messenger.'

John Foley, the Shelmerston fiddler, skipped on to the capstan-head; at

his first notes the men at the bars stepped out, and after the first turns

that brought on the strain, three deep voices and one clear tenor sang

Yeo heave ho, round the capstan go,

Heave men with a will

Tramp and tramp it still

The anchor must be weighed, the anchor must be weighed

joined by all in a roaring

Yeo heave ho

Yeo heave ho

five times repeated before the three struck in again

Yeo heave ho, raise her from below

Heave men with a will

Tramp and tramp it still

The anchor's off the ground, the anchor's off the ground

'There is your cable,' said Martin in a very much louder voice, after the

first few lines.

'So it is,' said Standish; and having stared at it coming in like a great

wet serpent he went on, 'But it is not going to the capstan at all.'

'Certainly not,' said Stephen in a screech above the full chorus. 'It is far

too thick to bend round the capstan; furthermore, it is loaded with the

vile mud of Tagus.'

'They undo the flippers and let the cable down the main hatchway and

so to the orlop, where they coil it on the cable-tiers,' said Martin. 'And

they hurry back with the flippers to bind fresh cable to the messenger as

it travels round.'

'How active they are,' observed Stephen. 'See how diligently they answer

Captain Pullings' request to light along the messenger, that is to say pull

along the slack on that side which is not heaving in -'

'And how they run with the flippers: Davies has knocked Plaice flat.'

'What are those men doing with the other cable?' asked Standish.

'They are veering it out,' answered Martin quickly.

'You are to understand that we are moored,' said Stephen. 'In other

words we are held by two anchors, widely separated; when we

approach the one, therefore, by pulling on its cable, the cable belonging

to the other must necessarily be let out, and this is done by the veering

cable-men. But their task is almost over, for if I do not mistake we are

short stay apeak. I say we are short stay apeak.'

But before he could insist upon this term, better than any Martin could

produce, and reasonably accurate, a voice from the forecastle called

'Heave and a-weigh, sir,' whereupon Jack cried 'Heave and rally' with

great force. All the veerers ran to the bars, the fiddler fiddled extremely

fast, and with a violent, grunting yeo heave ho they broke the anchor

from its bed and ran it up to the bows.

The subsequent operations, the hooking of the cat to the anchor-ring,

the running of the anchor up to the cat.head, the fishing of the anchor,

the shifting of the messenger for the other cable (which of course

required a contrary turn), and many more, were too rapid and perhaps

too obscure to be explained before Jack gave the order 'Up anchor' and

the music started again; but this time they sang

We'll heave him up from down below

Way oh Criana

That is where the cocks do crow

We're all bound over the mountain

to the sound of a shrill sweet fife.

The ship moved easily, steadily over the water - the tide was making fast

- and presently West, on the forecastle, called 'Up and down, sir.'

'He means that we are directly over the anchor,' said Stephen. 'Now you

will see something.'

'Loose topsails,' said Jack in little more than a conversational voice, and

at once the shrouds were dark with men racing aloft.

He gave no more orders. The Surprises lay out, let fall, sheeted home,

hoisted and braced the topsails with perfect unity, as though they had

all served together throughout a long commission. The frigate gathered

way, plucked the anchor from its bed and moved smoothly up the

Tagus."

- excerpt from The Thirteen-Gun Salute by Patrick O'Brian

The capstan assembly is the device used to raise and lower the ship's anchor(s). The capstan is a vertical-axled machine passing through at least two decks depending on the size of the vessel. It is operated by up to 100 men, again depending on the size of ship.

Here we see an exterior view of the bow of a 2 decker ship-of-the-line. The cable anchor passes through the hawse holes. It does not connect directly to the capstan (as we'll see). At this time in history the anchor was so large that it would break the capstan was it to wrap directly around it. It also took several men to handle the cable.

Okay. So here we can see all the inner workings. The way it all works is this: the messenger cable is wound around the trundlehead. (It would have been wound much more than once as pictured, but can't do it in LDD with those tubes.) The messenger cable then ran around the rollers and rode on the bits to keep it off the deck. (Also when the ship is "at anchor" the anchor cable is wove around the bits. This is how it keeps the ship in place. Otherwise the end of the anchor cable would just slide out the hawse hole and someone would have to handle another rope's end. ) The anchor cable was lashed to the messenger cable with bits of rope called nippers. (The nipper lashings would have extended from the hawse holes down the length of cable all the way to the hatch, not just the two I have pictured.) As a nipper reached the cable hatch a small boy (called a Nipper) would untie the lashing and run up to the forward bulkhead to tie it onto the cable that was just coming through the hawse hole. Down in the orlop were several strong and hearty lads who man-handled the anchor cable to lay and stack it neatly. (Though not displayed here, since the pre-fab hull pieces cut off some depth, the area of deck the cable was laid on had several planks missing so that air could circulate about the cable to dry it.

A note on the deck location for different sized men-of-war. As previously stated the displayed ship would be a 2nd, 3rd, or 4th rate "two decker." Were this a 1st or 2nd rate three-decker the trundlehead would extend up one more deck and there would be a second drumhead there. On a frigate: the deck where the trundlehead is shown would be the single gun-deck and the drumhead would be on the main deck (aka weatherdeck). With most frigates the capstan was light enough that when not in use it was bodily lowered into the gun deck to clear the main deck and a ship's launch was stored there.

A note on capstan location within the ship: Whilst pictured here just abaft the foremast the location of the capstan (trundlehead and drumhead) could be as far aft as just fore the mainmast.

I think that's about it. I'll probably do un-rated napoleonic ships next.

Questions, comments, concerns, critiques and criticisms are all welcome.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Edited July 8, 2012 by Foremast Jack

[CaptainBermuda]

Wow, capstans are more complicated than I thought Thanks for the nice little turorial.

[Foremast Jack]

Wow, capstans are more complicated than I thought Thanks for the nice little turorial.

You're very much welcome.

Yes they can be. Although I will say that this is about as complicated as it gets. It may have made more sense to start off in a chronological order, but as I said: this stage of the capstan's evolution is the most appropriate one for the audience here.

[Foremast Jack]

Part II: Unrated Men-of-War from pre- and post-Napoleonic era.

Welcome back to the Captain of the Capstan tutorial. Today we'll be looking at the most prominently used type of capstans on unrated men-of-war from the mid 18th century to end of the age of sail. (Those types of vessels being: Corvettes, Gun-brigs, Sloops-of-War, Spanish Xebecs, Ketches, Schooners, etc.)

note: larger ships in this class may have used the style of capstan covered in part one of this tutorial. When designing a ship, unless it's an historical one, use your best judgment to decide which style is most appropriate.

Here we have the larboard-quarter of a brig. Viewing the exterior of the ship there's not much difference from the larger ships covered in part one. On the inside there's quite more going on though, so let's move there.

Looking at the deck we get a look at the various names for the different parts. One should notice that a lot of the parts carry the same names, but have a slightly different orientation.

Operation of this of capstan is very similar to the larger ones previously covered. The advantage here being, that fewer men can operate it. However, it takes MUCH longer to complete the task (3-4 hours compared with 30-45 minutes).

Men would work both the starboard and larboard sides of the capstan assembly simultaneously. In the pictured position the larboard side would remove their capstan bar and re-insert it when the starboard side had hauled theirs to the deck.

Although it is enclosed in this picture, betwixt the drumheads is the pawl assembly. This is a ratchet mechanism which keeps the anchor cable from feeding back out whilst it's being weighed.

Again if there are any questions, comments or concerns please do not hesitate to present them.

Edited December 13, 2011 by Foremast Jack

[Horry]

That is a very impressive tutorial, so far!I raise my hat to you, sir. And it's a far mor accurate representation than my schematics - one could get jealous if it wasn't so damn well done

[Foremast Jack]

That is a very impressive tutorial, so far!I raise my hat to you, sir. And it's a far mor accurate representation than my schematics - one could get jealous if it wasn't so damn well done

I'm very grateful for such great words from such a great mind.

[Foremast Jack]

Part III: Merchant Ships (and the like).

Welcome the third and final part of the Captain of the Capstan tutorial. With this installment we'll take a look at the Pump Handle Windlass. The machine used to raised the anchor on most smaller (lightly manned) merchant ships and other generally small vessels (combat oriented or not).

We should note that with merchant ships, the size of the vessel did not have as much to do with the type of capstan used. Rather it had more to do with its compliment of men. With the pump windlass as few of two men could operate it.

note: Obviously with such merchant ships as the famed "indiaman" (which carried as many men and guns as some 4th rate ships-of-the-line) they would employ the style of capstan described in part I.

The operation of the Pump Handle Windlass is fairly straight-forward. One of more men took hold of each handle and alternatively "pumped" the handles up and down. On the down stroke, an iron rod attached to the rocker arms moved a ratcheting gear on the windlass barrel. Thusly, drawing in the anchor cable. Whilst that was happening a gravity type pawl plate locked it from reverse motion.

a note on location: the majority of the time the windlass assembly was stored on deck in the bow; however, it was not uncommon (especially on Clippers in the mid-19th century) for it be stored under the fo'c'sle and brought up on deck when needed for use.

Edited December 13, 2011 by Foremast Jack

[Sebeus I]

The illustrations (LDD images) are great, they really make your tutoral easier to follow, very interesting as well.

[Foremast Jack]

The illustrations (LDD images) are great, they really make your tutoral easier to follow, very interesting as well.

I glad the illustrations are helpful. Some of them are VERY time consuming and insanity inducing. I'm happy to see the effort is worth it.

[Skipper]

Thanks for the tutorial Foremast Jack!

I don't tend to build things at a scale where so much detail would be necessary but it's very interesting anyways. Your illustrations are amazing, my only suggestion is to take screenshots without the LDD background (control k) so everything looks cleaner. Can we see the LXFs? I'd like to take a closer look at how some of these are built.

Edited December 12, 2011 by Skipper

[Foremast Jack]

Thanks for the tutorial Foremast Jack!

I don't tend to build things at a scale where so much detail would be necessary but it's very interesting anyways. Your illustrations are amazing, my only suggestion is to take screenshots without the LDD background (control k) so everything looks cleaner. Can we see the LXFs? I'd like to take a closer look at how some of these are built.

Thanks for the comments.

I tried using the screenshot capabilities of LDD from within the program, but it gives the background an off-white background and the editing program I use has difficulties rendering it when I paste in to add labels. (Displays it as gray and white checkers.)

And yes I'd be more than happy to post the LXF's. However, being new I'm not sure the best way that would keep all the admin's happy. What would you recommend for attaching the files?

[Skipper]

And yes I'd be more than happy to post the LXF's. However, being new I'm not sure the best way that would keep all the admin's happy. What would you recommend for attaching the files?

You can upload them to your Brickshelf like a picture. Then control - click the LXF icon, select "copy link adress," and then use that to create a normal link.

[Foremast Jack]

You can upload them to your Brickshelf like a picture. Then control - click the LXF icon, select "copy link adress," and then use that to create a normal link.

Here you go.

My link

The pump windlass isn't completely functional. I kind of fudged a couple aspects when I couldn't make it small enough and squeeze in all the details I wanted. The other two work though. I deleted a couple things though. The horizontal capstan is off a WIP of mine I'm getting ready to build irl, and there are some techniques I don't want to give away til I get them done.

[Foremast Jack]

Redid all the pictures. Looks a lot better now. Enjoy.

[Horry]

yes, that looks much better now! And the files would be great! I'll upload mine, too and we can create weird hybrids

[Foremast Jack]

yes, that looks much better now! And the files would be great! I'll upload mine, too and we can create weird hybrids

I left you a private message. Get back with me when you can please.