To make a steering wheel.
A ship’s wheel differs from that of a waggon in being, not a roller moving freely on its axle and supporting the carriage and its load, but rather a series of levers arranged as spokes, connected and supported by the felloe for the purpose of turning the axle and gathering in or slacking off on either side the ropes or chains by which the tiller is moved; the spokes, therefore, project 6 in. or 8 in. beyond the circumference of the felloe, and are smoothed and rounded off so as to be easily and conveniently grasped by the steersman’s hand. The diameter of the felloe should not be less than 30 in., or it will not give sufficient leverage; nor more than 4 ft., or a man cannot command it easily. Neither the nave nor the felloe are made solid, but are built up in the following manner: The lines of circumference are traced, and the angles of the spokes set off in the manner already described. A disc of hard wood 9 in. in circumference, about 2 in. thick, and with a hole 3 in. square in its centre, is laid upon the floor. The spokes are arranged on this, and screwed or clenched firmly to it; the interstices are then filled up, and another disc of similar size is screwed or clenched over all to form the front. The bush, or axle box, which of course is square, is fitted in, and an ornamental boss, generally covered with brass, is screwed over to conceal it. The felloe pieces are 3in. or 4in. broad, and 1in. thick: the back pieces are laid so that their centres come upon the spokes and their ends between; the next set, exactly as thick as the spokes, are laid in the intervals; and the front pieces are laid so that their ends meet upon the spokes, where they are generally confined by an ornamental lozenge, a cross, or an oval of brass, screwed down upon them. The axle is supported in a true fore and aft line by a couple of stancheons, with bushes for it to work in; and on some part of it, behind the wheel, is fixed the drum, over which the tiller chains or hide ropes are passed with two or three turns, so that as one is gathered in by a turn of the wheel, the other may be slacked off.
SPANISH WINDLASS.
Windlass.
A windlass may be of any size, from that of the old crossbow, to one fitted to weigh the anchor of a vessel, although in large ships the capstan is thought to afford the best and steadiest means of applying the continuous exertions of the men. A windlass may be roughly formed by setting up a couple of forked logs, or still better, if possible, choosing two forked trees firmly rooted in the proper place, and laying across them another log, thinned off as much as possible where it rests in the forks, to reduce the friction without too much impairing the strength. The central part ought to have paul notches cut in it, and a heavy paul log may be hinged or pivoted to a stout staple, nearly level with the ground, so that its end, acting as a “paul,” catches the paul notches and prevents the windlass giving way to the strain of the cable while the men are shifting their handspikes. The barrel of the windlass ought to be chopped or adzed down to an octagonal form (expressively though erroneously called 8-square), and holes should be morticed right through in each face so that each man, without change of position, should have eight opportunities of inserting his handspike. A Spanish windlass may be extemporised with the boat’s oars. Two of them are lashed together as sheers with legs of unequal length, the longer leg being in the direction of the strain. A pair are set up in each side of the boat and lashed to the thwarts, care being taken to put some piece of wood or other dunnage under the ends, so that they may not hurt the planking. Another oar is now laid across, with its loom resting in the forks; a grummet strop or a short piece of rope is made fast to the middle of each of the boat’s stretchers; if the end is frayed out, so much the better. The end is applied to the loom of the oar that represents the windlass, and the stretcher is turned round and round it until the rope tightens so much as to make it an efficient handspike. It should then be “stopped” in position with a bit of yarn. If there is a davit in the boat, the buoy rope is carried over the sheave, three or four turns are passed over the “windlass oar” and the end is carried forward and held by one of the boat’s crew, who gathers in all he can and loses none as the men heave round. When the boat’s stern is hove down as low in the water as is prudent, all the men go in the bow, and sometimes jump there, to jerk the anchor from the ground.
GUNNER’S CAPSTAN.
The gunner’s capstan is made by sinking one end of a waggon or gun axle in the ground, placing a wheel on it upside down, and lashing handspikes to the spokes to act as capstan bars. The rope to be hove on is passed round the nave of the wheel below the line of the spokes, as shown in the annexed illustration.