CAPSTAN. An appliance used on board ship and on dock walls, for heaving-in or veering cables and hawsers, whether of chain, steel or hemp. It differs from a windlass, which is used for the same purposes, in having the axis on which the cable or rope is wound vertical instead of horizontal.
The earlier forms were of a comparatively simple character, made of wood with an iron spindle and worked by manual labour with wooden capstan bars. As heavier cables were supplied to ships, difficulty was found, when riding at anchor, in holding, checking and veering cable. A cable-holder (W. H. Harfield's) was tested in H.M.S. "Newcastle" (wooden frigate) in 187o and proved effective; its first development in 1876 was the application in the form of a windlass secured to the deck, driven by a mes senger chain from the capstan, fitted in H.M.S. "Inflexible." Mod ern warships are fitted with a capstan in the centreline, which may be capable of taking a chain cable as well as a hawser ; also a cable-holder for each bower cable, all power-worked. The sheet cable, which normally rides round a dummy cable-holder, can be brought to the centre-line capstan by means of rollers. (See