In Thucydides, [meaning] they were moving and rotating;[1] for a windlass[2] of the mill [is] the thing that is moved; and windlasses [are] devices of such a kind.
Thucydides [writes]: "they tied the stakes and were hauling them up with windlasses". That is, they were using windlasses.
A windlass is [sc. in this instance] a device fixed to the tops of the light boats, from which they would toss nooses around the stakes and easily drag them up from the sea-bed. For the device is so very strong that a heavy drag-net can be dragged by two men without difficulty. The fishermen who drag them, brushing along the ground, call the device a distaff. A lot of effort is required to drag it up, even when a forked beam has been put in front of it; for the resistance of the things dragged opposes it.