Capstan Pawl
Description
Shaped piece of wood. Flat with one curved end which tapers down to a shaped blunt point. The edges are chamfered on all sides.
This piece of wood is possibly part of a capstan on the HMS Invincible. A capstan could be found at the front of the vessel and was used to lift ropes and the anchors. By inserting a wooden pole into the capstan, a few sailors could rotate the capstan and thus pull up much larger weights than they could have done conventionally. In the case of the anchor this would have allowed much heavier anchors to be installed and for the weight of these anchors to be spread amongst multiple sailors.
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Object Detail
Breadth: 102mm
Depth: 28mm (1 1/8")