Forms: α. 4 capstan, 5–6 capstayne, 6 capestan, 6–7 capstain(e, -sten, 7–8 -stane, 7 -stone, -stang, 7– capstan; β. 7 capsterne, 7–9 -stern, (7 capstorm); γ. 7–8 capstand; δ. 7–8 capstall; see also CAPSTRING. [either a. F. cabestan, also in 16th c. capestan (Littré), or else directly from the source of the Fr., viz. Pr. cabestan, earlier cabestran (Cat. cabestrant, Sp. cabestrante, -estante, cabrestante, Pg. cabrestante):—L. *capistrānt- pr. pple. of capistrāre (Pr. cabestrar), to halter, bind fast, fasten, f. capistr-um (It. capestro, Sp. cabestro, Pg. cabresto, Pr. cabestre, F. chevêtre) halter, f. cap-ĕre to take hold of.
The Fr. cabestan is not known to us earlier than Palsgr., 1530; since the word occurs in Eng. in 14th c., it may have been learned from the shipmen of Marseilles or Barcelona at the time of the Crusades. In Pg., capistrum and its derivatives have the r transposed, cabresto ‘halter,’ nautically ‘ropes, cables belonging to the bowsprit,’ cabresteiro ‘halter-maker,’ cabrestante; the last is also the approved form in mod. literary Sp.; this form gave rise to the untenable conjecture that the derivation was from cabra goat + estante ‘standing,’ ingeniously supported by the known application of the name of the goat in various languages (cabria, chèvre, bock, etc.), to various mechanical devices. The attempt to find a meaning in the word, in English, produced many popular perversions of the second element, as stain, stone, stand, stall, stern, storm, string. Other names were capstock, and cablestock.]
1. A piece of mechanism, working on the principle of the wheel and axle, on a vertical axis, the power being applied by movable bars or levers inserted in horizontal sockets made round the top, and pushed by men walking round, whereby the apparatus is made to revolve and wind up a cable round its cylinder or barrel; it is used especially on board ship for weighing the anchor, also for hoisting heavy sails, etc., and for raising weights out of quarries, mines, coal-pits (see GIN), and the like.
Double capstan, one that has two barrels on different decks, so as to be worked by two sets of men. Phrases, To heave at the capstan, to man the capstan, to bring the cable to the capstan; to rig the capstan, to insert the bars, etc.; to pawl the capstan, to drop the pawls or catches into their sockets so as to prevent recoil, when heaving is stopped; to come up the capstan, to slacken the cable by lifting out the pawls and walking back; to surge the capstan, to slacken the rope while heaving so as to prevent riding or fouling.
α. forms capstan, -stain, -sten, -stone, -stang.
c. 1325. E. E. Allit. P., B. 418. Þe arc … with-outen … kable oþer capstan to clyppe to her ankrez.
c. 1500. Cocke Lorell’s B. (1843), 12. Some wounde at ye capstayne … Some stode at ye slynge.
1530. Palsgr., 607/2. Let go your capestan … laschez vostre cabestan.
a. 1608. Sir F. Vere, Comm., 28. The Cap-stain being too strong for my men.
1615. MS. Acc. St. John’s Hosp. Canterb., A nyorne pynne for the capsten.
1618. Raleigh, Invent. Shipping, 16. The weighing of Anchors by the Capstone is also new.
1622. R. Hawkins, Voy. S. Sea (1847), 132. With our capsten [we] stretched the two byghtes.
1633. T. James, Voy., 25. Bringing the Cable to Capstang, to heaue in our Cable.
1706. Phillips, Capstan, Capstand or Capstern … Come up Capstan, or Launce out the Capstan, when the Sea-men would have the Cable that they heave by slacked.
1729. Desaguliers, in Phil. Trans., XXXVI. 196. A Capstane, or upright Shaft, drawn round by Horses.
1832. Babbage, Econ. Manuf., vii. (ed. 3), 48. In mines it is sometimes necessary to raise or lower great weights by capstans.
β. forms capstern, -storm.
1624. Capt. Smith, Virginia, I. 14. The men … were throwne from the Capstern, by the breaking of a barre.
1670. Dryden, Tempest, I. i. Hands down! Man your Main-Capstorm.
1759. Wesley, Wks. (1872), II. 521. The capstern of the ship.
1769. Falconer, Dict. Marine (1789), To come up the Catstern, is to let go the rope which they had been heaving.
1836. Marryat, Midsh. Easy, xiii. 45. Mind you leave all your pistols on capstern.
γ. form capstand.
1616. Bullokar, Capstand, an instrument to wind up things of great weight, some call it a Crane.
1791. Smeaton, Edystone L., § 154. I tried them by a strain from the Capstand.
δ. form capstall.
1610. Holland, Camden’s Brit., I. 318. Enforced to worke their vessels to land by a Capstall or Crane.
1714. Steele, The Lover (1723), 190. Anchors, Cables, Rudders … Capstals.
2. attrib. and Comb., as capstan-bar, -barrel, -heaver; capstan-headed adj.; capstan-house, see quot.; capstan-swifter, ‘a rope passed horizontally through notches in the outer ends of the bar … the intent is to steady the men, and to give room for a greater number to assist, by manning the swifters both within and without’ (Smyth).
1627. Smith, Seaman’s Gram., ii. 7. Holes thorow which you put your *Capstaine barres, for as many men as can stand at them to thrust it about, and is called manning the Capstaine.
1798. Capt. Miller, in Nicolas, Disp. Nelson (1846), VII. Introd. 157. They dropped under the capstan-bars, and were asleep in a moment.
1706. Phillips, s.v., *Capstan-barrel is the main part of the whole piece.
1790. Roy, in Phil. Trans., LXXX. 147. *Capstan-headed screws.
1791. Bentham, Panopt., II. 115. The *capstern-heaver would be dead before the wheel-walker felt the sensation of fatigue.
1809. C. Milward, in Naval Chron., XXII. 309. I … marched them to the mess-room door of the *capstan-house.
1863. Barry, Dockyard Econ., 101. Capstan-houses…. These are the houses in which capstans, anchor stocks, pump boxes, &c., are manufactured, repaired, and stored.
