WINDLASS, in a ship, is an instrument in small ships, placed upon the deck, just abaft the fore-mast. It is made of a piece of timber six or eight feet square, in form of an axle-tree, whose length is placed horizontally upon two pieces of wood at the ends thereof, and upon which it is turned about by the help of handspikes put into holes made for that purpose. This instrument serves for weighing anchors, or hoisting of any weight in or out of the ship, and will purchase much more than any capstan, and that without any danger to those that heave; for if in heaving the windlass about, any of the handspikes should happen to break, the windlass would fall of itself.