Wiktionary
windlasses
n. (context nautical English) (plural of windlass English)
Usage examples of "windlasses".
Advance down into the water by means of strong cables and windlasses, as the creek was so narrow that the submarine, if launched in the usual way, would poke her nose into the opposite mud bank and stick there.
Swift, and the various windlasses manned by the inventor, Tom and the others began to unwind their ropes.
He could hear the clank of their windlasses as they came up over their anchors, could see a couple of launches crawling across the glossy shield of the water.