Word: windlass
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...second series of his The Seven Sacraments shows. His early Martyrdom of St. Erasmus, 1628, sticks in the mind because it is such a singular combination of ferocity and decorum -- the torture of a saint by evisceration, a live man's guts being drawn out on a windlass, yet with the shock of the blood edited away or, rather, subliminally transferred to a cascade of red drapery below Erasmus' body. In his work, pagan antiquity and 17th century Catholicism eloquently support each other...
...everything aboard the ship is archaic: on windless days, the steel-hulled Eagle, built in 1936, vibrates with the hum of her 728-h.p. diesel engine. Power winches, not able-bodied seamen, crank the windlass to hoist anchor. In the communications shack, the latest electronic gear helps plot the ship's position. On the foremast, a slowly rotating radar scanner keeps an electronic...
...found to be still in good shape. Its collection of null 18th century sets, ranging from trompe I'oeil farmhouses to ornate court scenes, is the world's largest. The wooden stage machinery, designed by the Italian master Donate Sopani, is so flexible that a four-man windlass team can make a complete scene change in ten seconds. In the 40-odd rooms where actors and singers once lived while the royal family was in residence at Drottningholm, the original hand-painted wallpaper survives-as does a wicked caricature of a needle-nosed French ballet master penciled...
...week preparations were completed. Discoverer Lépineux had the traditional right to make the first descent. He buckled on his parachute harness, put a steel helmet over his woolen cap, adjusted his miner's head lamp and his altimeter, hooked his harness to the cable of the windlass and, after a quick handshake all around, stepped off into the void...
...dropped one meter every six seconds, all the while reporting regularly to Cosyns over a special telephone connected through the center of the cable. At 130 meters, the expedition got a bad scare when a short circuit cut off communication for a few moments. But by the time the windlass dial registered 300 meters, excitement on the surface was running high. If Lépineux continued for just a little longer, he would break the long-standing vertical drop record of 318 meters.* "Stop," he finally called. "I am on the bottom." The windlass dial registered 356 meters...