(57) A davit device for pivoting an accommodation ladder (13) from a stowing position on a ship's deck (16) to a position outside the ship's side by means of a wire (14), which is connected to the ladder by at least a pulley (19) firmly mounted above the davit (11). The object is to provide a davit device which without any external facilities can be automatically brought to pivot past the dead centre at a pivoting of half a revolution, as well as at the lowering and the raising of the ladder. This has been solved by the fact that at the davit (11) there is attached at least one mechanism (15, 37) which is arranged to be switched over at the pivoting of the davit device (11, 13) substantially between its end position, so that, when the wire (14) is in its most retracted position and the davit device (11, 13) is in its raised position, the centre of gravity (36) of the davit device has passed the dead centre level, i.e. a vertical line (35) through the pivot axle (12), independent of whether the davit (11) is rotated towards or from stowing position.