The pulley tied at the base of the derrick jumped up and after it the windlass, which struck the heavy posts like a battering-ram.
The windlass had become a thing of horror, black and forbidding.
Scarcely breathing, Lawton leaned over the windlass and stared downward.
It was an old-fashioned open one, with a chain and windlass.
From inside came the creak and whine of a windlass bearing a heavy load.
He stepped to the windlass that raised the bell, and turned the handle.
Then set up hard on the halyard, using the windlass or watch-tackle.
Working at the windlass or capstan with more than usual exertion.
The Russians had a neat log house built on a grassy slope, with a windlass well beside the door.
From windlass to wheel our decks presented a scene of wild excitement.
device for raising weights by winding a rope round a cylinder, c.1400, alteration of wyndase (late 13c.), from Anglo-French windas, and directly from a Scandinavian source such as Old Norse vindass, from vinda "to wind" (see wind (v.1)) + ass "pole, beam."