“The sailors call letting down an anchor, dropping it, and they use what is termed a capstan to draw it up, or as they say, heave it again. The capstan of a ship is formed like those frequently seen along shore, used for drawing up the boats above high-water mark; it has a moveable top, called the drumhead, with holes around the sides, into which long poles, called capstan bars, are inserted; at each of these several men place themselves, and pushing with all their strength in one direction, the machine moves round, and winds in the cable: stamp! stamp! they go, with a ho heave oh! keeping time with their feet and voices, generally to the accompaniment of a drum and fife, or a fiddle, if it be a merchant ship; and the capstan creaks and groans, and the cable comes slowly in, like a huge sea serpent, to be stowed away, coil upon coil, in its proper place below, on the orlop deck. And the good ship, with her anchor weighed, as it is termed, leaves her moorings, and with sails spread or funnels smoking, ploughs the deep, or, as a poet has said––

                “Walks the waters like a thing of life,
                And seems to dare the elements to strife.””
[The Sea-Side Lesson Book, Adams,1856]
Henry Gardiner Adams (1811–1881)