either during the shifting the powers, or otherwise, as much supported by the strength of the people as the ordinary capstan is; thus clearly shewing that this arrangement of the wheel-work is peculiarly adapted to capstans. Nor is the situation of the works necessarily confined to one place, hut may he left entirely to the option of the constructor or employer.”
Captain Parry, in the narrative of his third voyage for the discovery of a N.W. passage, says:
“The strain we constantly had occasion to heave on the hawsers, as springs to force the ships through the ice, was such as, perhaps, no ship ever before attempted; and by means of Phillips’s invaluable capstan, we often separated floes of such magnitude as must otherwise have baffled every effort. I cannot omit this opportunity of expressing my admiration of this ingenious contrivance, in every trial to which we put it in the course of this voyage. By the perfect facility with which the machinery is made to act, or the contrary, it is easily altered and applied to any purpose, in ten or fifteen seconds; and the slowness, and consequent steadiness of the power, render it infinitely less trying to the hawsers than any purchase we were before enabled to adopt on board a ship, independent of the great personal risk consequent on the snapping of a hawser.”
The great benefit of the improved capstan to ships that may be short-handed, and also where the messenger is made equal to withstand the strain. Captains George W. C. Courtenay and Williams Sandom, have fully proved in letters to Captain Phillips; – the former officer states, that he was enabled to get a 20-gun sloop under weigh, at a time when he had only fourteen efficient men on board; and Captain Sandom says:–
“While in command of different vessels on the West India station, for nearly four years, I frequently experienced the great advantage arising from the power of your capstan, mere particularly when sickness had so reduced the crew as to render an attempt to weigh the anchor with the usual means doubtful and dangerous; and I found I could always apply the increased power with safety, by using lengths of the stream chain cable in lieu of a hempen messenger, by which means a great saving accrued, as the hempen messengers, particularly in the West Indies, were always giving way.”
Another most important advantage to be derived from the use of the patent capstan has likewise been proved by Lord Napier, who, in a letter to Captain Phillips, says:–
