Abstract: A manual swivel winch includes safe loading mechanism. The winch has a pair of spaced side plates, a rotating drum supported between the side plates, a drum gear coaxially mounted with the rotating drum, a pinion drive gear engaging and rotating the drum gear, and a lever supported by at least one side plate for rotating the pinion drive gear. The lever includes a selectable lever gearing assembly. The lever is selected to be operated in an initial tensioning mode for rotating the pinion drive gear, and in a final tensioning mode wherein the lever utilizes the lever gearing assembly to provide a mechanical advantage over the initial tensioning mode.