apostles

The Oxford Companion to Ships and the Sea | 2006 | 578 words | Copyright

apostles, the name given to the two large bollards fixed to the main deck near the bows in larger square-rigged ships, around which hawsers or cables were belayed. In all the larger sailing vessels the anchor cables were brought inboard through the hawseholes at main deck level since it was on that deck that the main capstan was mounted. In some of the smaller merchant ships of the sailing era, where the anchor cables were brought in over the forecastle deck, the knightheads, which supported the heel of the bowsprit, were used as apostles when belaying the anchor cables.

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