swifted

Updated: May 16, 2025

But without using their clumsy, though certainly very ingenious, machinery of turning men into handspikes, I think," said he, "we might construct our floating windlass in such a way that a set of small spars studding-sail booms, for instance might be inserted at right angles to its length, like the bars of a capstan, and these, if swifted together, could be worked from the boats, without the necessity of any one going into the water."

Basil Hall - The Lieutenant and Commander : Being Autobigraphical Sketches of His Own Career, from Fragments of Voyages and Travels