Contrary to the how the name sounds, the ‘fish davit’ is not actually used for fishing – at least not for catching sea critters. Instead, the fish davit is used to help ‘fish’ out the extraordinarily heavy anchor for stowage.
The davit is a large, square beam fitted on each side with rope handles to allow multiple crew members maneuver it into position. The davit is tapered slightly from the center outward with crowns cut out on the ends to fit and secure rigging. One end of the davit hangs over the side of the deck and is held at the opposite end by a spanshackle securing it to the forecastle and providing leverage to haul up the anchor.
I began with the large, square spanshackes by taking a round brass rod and sanding the edges square on both the inside and outside a loop that is measured to fit the davit. They are chemically blackened then secured to the forecastle with a ring bolt.
The davit is pretty straightforward to shape, merely a square piece of timber cut and tapered. However the hand rope is a bugger to get correct. The rope is secured along the davit with looped knots of line rather than metal rings. To create each loop I drilled a hole in the davit, added a small bit of super glue to stiffen one end of a rope so it can be inserted into the hole. Then, I stuffed the other end of the loop into the same hole using needle nose tweezers and a dental pick.
The davit is then mounted on the deck and in the spanshackle. At this point, it’s not permanently mounted in case it needs to be shifted around to get at any rigging, etc.
The Lehman Shipyard 