Winch on The Dunbrody, a three-masted barque

[Hanksy]

I couldn't find a suitable place for this thread so hope it is ok here. I hope someone can answer my question.

I was on a tour of The Dunbrody Famine Ship on Thursday and couldn't figure out why the winch was where it is. The ship was built in 1845 as a cargo ship. The winch is a big capstan winch on it's on the deck between the centre and the aft mast. Anybody know what it's purpose was?

Here is a link to the Dunbrody replica:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunbrody_(2001)

[Snowpetrel]

I sailed on the Batavia replica. She had a big capstan mounted about there that we used for hauling up the topsail yards. Also would have been used for launching boats, cargo, sending down spars etc.

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