Abstract: Winch especially a ship's winch designed for mooring, hauling, towing and the like. A control system adapted to establish a desired tension in the hawser via the drum of the winch by regulating the power of the drive motor so as to pacify or mitigate peak tensional loads on the hawser. A regulatable transmission arranged between a control member of a control device incorporated in the control system and a movable component selected from the winch drum and its drive shaft to control the control member in a linearly regulatable actuation movement depending upon the movement of the movable component. The transmission is regulatable to an actuation position in which a desired tension is established in the hawser from the winch drum on exposure of a desired length of the hawser.