Windlass Brake Handle Stowage

[Sgt Mike]

I am currently building the MS Benjamin W. Latham fishing schooner.  I am at the point of installing the windlass at the bow.  I noticed that when set up the ship for underway/working status if I leave the brake handles in the operating status that they would surely be head knockers.  If I had been a deck hand on that ship, the second time the brake handle knocked me it would have been in the deep blue.

 

I have been using Chapell's "American Fishing Schooner" book and on line research  but have not found out how the hand breaks would have been stowed.  Would they have been lashed to the windlass knees, barrel, or bulwarks?

 

Are there any ideas before I throw the hand brakes into the deep blue?

[Pete Jaquith]

Mike,

 

The attached pictures illustrates how I stowed the windlass break handles on the forward bulwark on my Maine Topsail Schooner Eagle of 1847 build.

 

Regards,

Pete

Edited October 20, 2018 by Pete Jaquith

[Osmosis]

Funny I was just reading up on that in Historic Ship Models by Wolfram zu Mondfeld and he agrees with Pete that capstan and winch handles would have been stored on brackets around the mast or on nearby bulwarks or deck house bulkheads.

 

Regards

[wefalck]

Don't seem to remember having seen any brackets for patent windlass handles, but in any case they would require to be lashed down so as not to become dislodged in a heavy sea - they are far more difficult to replace than the old wooden ones.