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Please help a stranger: Windlass meaning!

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jumborex:
Hi, just started reading "The Aeronaut's Windlass" and I like it! But I'm not English mother language, so I have troubles sometimes. One is about terms like "Windlass", that I know as a machine for rising anchors or heavy bag in ships. I cannot imagine why the ship is defined a "Windlass." Thank you.

Quantus:
In this case it's a world specific usage, so it's not just you.

An airship that is too damaged to fly and maneuver properly can usually rise and lower itself, if very slowly, and so can get cheap work transporting cargo up and down the Spire.  But it's not exactly a glamourous task, and to suggest that a world-class ship like the predator degrade itself to that level is somewhat distasteful to her captain and crew.

Imagine taking a world-class speedboat, and paddling it around like a rowboat to deliver the mail in the Bay. 

jumborex:
Ah yes! I already supposed this, but now I'm sure. Thank you a lot.

Quantus:
Also, Welcome to the Forums!

The insanity runs deep, but it's the healthy kind  :)

Dina:
Hello Jumborex! Benvenuto! As English is not my first language (Spanish is) I had the same problem that you and I needed to search for it. Apparently, a windlass is basically some big pulley used in ships but as the others explained, it use is metaphorical. A ship is a windlass when she only takes cargo from above to below and back, a very mechanical and repetitive work. So offensive for the Captain of the ship.

By the way, the word windlass was so perfect, it sounded like a super heroine, like "aqua boy and wind lass"  :) :).  I was disappointed when I discovered that was not the case. For instence, "The aeronaut and the windlass" would have been a beautiful title for a love story between a globe aviator and a mystical spirit like Ariel in the Tempest
(Sorry, that is the sort of things I think when I am alone at work)

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