Great Expectations vocabulary

8 nautical terms (boats, equipment, etc.)

8 [nautical] words
help & settings
[x]
help with word

capstan

help with tags tags: [nautical]

help with definition
► definition
Definition:
A vertical cleated drum or cylinder, revolving on an upright spindle, and surmounted by a drumhead with sockets for bars or levers. It is much used, especially on shipboard, for moving or raising heavy weights or exerting great power by traction upon a rope or cable, passing around the drum. It is operated either by steam power or by a number of men walking around the capstan, each pushing on the end of a lever fixed in its socket.

Noah Webster. Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

image relating to capstan
photo: en:User:Leonard G. [CC SA 1.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/sa/1.0/ )]

help with use text
► uses
Uses:
pumps going in leaky ships, capstans going, ships going out to sea, and unintelligible sea-creatures roaring curses over the bulwarks at respondent lightermen,

Charles Dickens. Great Expectations (1861)
---
One detail, which we must not omit, is that he possessed a physical strength which was not approached by a single one of the denizens of the galleys. At work, at paying out a cable or winding up a capstan, Jean Valjean was worth four men.

Victor Hugo. Les Misérables
help with search help with search