Improved Capstan and Windlass . 223 
the cable enters tlie hawse hole, and are again removed 
as it approaches the capstan, after which it is lowered in- 
to the cable tier. 
The messenger, or any other rope coiled round the 
capstan, must descend a space at every revolution, equal 
to the diameter of the rope or cable used ; this circum- 
stance brings the coils in a few turns to the bottom of the 
capstan, when it can no longer be turned round, till the 
coils are loosened and raised up to its other extremity, 
after which the motion proceeds as before. This opera- 
tion of shifting the place of the coils of the messenger 
on the capstan, is called surging the messenger : It al- 
ways causes considerable delay ; and when the messen- 
ger chances to slip in changing its position, which some- 
times happens, no small danger is incurred by those who 
are employed about the capstan. 
The first method that I know of, used to prevent the 
necessity of surging, was by placing a horizontal roller 
beneath the messenger, where it first entered on the cap- 
stan, so supported by a frame, in which it turned on gud- 
geons, that the messenger in passing over it was compel- 
led to force upwards all the coils above the capstan, as it 
formed a new coil. 
This violent forcing of the coils upwards along the 
barrel of the capstan not only adds considerably to the 
labour in turning the capstan, but from the great friction 
which the messenger must suffer in the operation, while 
pressed so hard against the capstan, (as it must be by the 
weight of the anchor and strain of the men,) could not 
but cause a very great wear and injury to the messenger, 
or other cable w ound round the capstan ; and that this 
wear must occasion an expense of no small amount, must 
be manifest on considering the large sums which the 
smallest cables used for this purpose cost. 
The next method applied to prevent surging was that 
