Ansell Smith's, the oldest and principal clearing about this lake, appeared to be quite a harbor for bateaux and canoes; seven or eight of the former were lying about, and there was a small scow for hay, and a capstan on a platform, now high and dry, ready to be floated and anchored to tow rafts with.

"We'll do well enough; some of you have your sheath knives yet, and the rest can use belaying pins, and capstan bars.

At this instant he perceived Mr. Holmes and his daughter on the capstan.

It was no easy matter for John Stevens to break away from his hold on the main-mast and make his way to the capstan.

Stevens made a bold push, however, and reached the capstan.

Instinctively John wound one arm about the girl and held to the capstan with the other.

It seemed an age, and he was almost on the point of relaxing his hold on the capstan, when they once more rose above the water, and he got a breath of air.

John Stevens remained by the capstan, as it was highest point, holding Blanche in his arms long after the ship had settled in the sands.

I'd ha' preferred a capstan-bar.

Thinking things could only go from bad to worse, Cook determined to heave her off at all hazards, and every one who could be spared from the pumps was sent to the capstan or windlass, and at length, after a stay of twenty-three hours on the rocks, she was hove into deep water.

Nothing is so changeable as the weather: yesterday we were revelling in sunshine, and today we were surrounded by a thick, dark fog; and yet this, bad as it was, we found more agreeable than the fine weather of the day before, for a slight breeze sprang up, and at nine o'clock in the morning, we heard the rattling of the capstan, as the anchor was being weighed.

Silent are the "yarns" with which he used to while away the time when off his watch and huddling under the lee of the capstan with his messmates.

We warped her with ice-anchors and the capstan into the position in which she should lay up for her winter's drift.

And when I saw that, I dropped down upon my knees at the capstan, and my poor heart sobbed out the frail cry: 'Well, Lord God, Thou hast destroyed the work of Thy hand...'

Any one who has seen an outward-bound clipper ship getting under way and heard the "shanty-songs" sung by the sailors as they toiled at capstan and halliards, will probably remember that rhymeless but melodious refrain

At last all was ready, the crew manned the capstan bars, the sails were hoisted, and the schooner glided gracefully through the water towards the Sound.

Round went the capstan, the windlass clanked, and the ship forged slowly ahead, as the warps and hawsers became rigid.

Capstan bars; with woodcuts by Freda Bone.

The crew was assembled on the forecastle and in the waists; the marine guard was under arms; the officers clustered around the capstan; and a solemn, uneasy expectation pervaded the whole ship.

Tom himself, come back to life, was standing on the capstan waving his cap in the air, and cheering and laughing like a mad thing.

At nine, finding we could get no more information from them, we weighed; the natives all left us very quietly as soon as the capstan was manned, and by signs appeared to wish us to revisit them.

Trysail stood near the capstan, coolly giving the orders which have been related, and gazing upward with an interest so absorbed as to render him unconscious of all that passed around his person.

He stood leaning against the capstan, one hand supporting his cheek, while the elbow rested against the drum, and the body was without motion.

" Ludlow joined the little group of officers that was by this time assembled near the capstan.

Mounted on the capstan, he addressed them briefly, and not without influence.