Anchor (ship)

“ The ground tackle on the ship was all that could be desired. Of the three Hall type anchors, the largest, or stem anchor, weighed a little more than twelve tons. The other two, port and starboard, tipped the scales at eleven tons. These little trinkets were the only articles on board considered safe from souvenir hunters. For the information of landsmen, the “anchor watch” has no connection with the anchor itself, but is merely the men on watch as Officer of the Deck’s night messengers while the ship is at anchor. ”

“ When the Cable is Perpendicular between the Hawse and the Anchor, it is then said to be a Peek; when hangs right up and down by the Ship's Side, it is said to be a Cock Bill, upon the Ship's coming to an Anchor; when a Ship drives by the Violence of Wind or Tide, and the Anchor cannot hold her, then it's said to come Home. Those which have lost one of their Flooks, are made use of for Moarings. ”

“ Anchor-ground, fond de bonne tenue, is a bottom which is neither too deep, too shallow, nor rocky; as in the first the cable bears too nearly perpendicular, and is thereby apt to jerk the anchor out of the ground: in the second, the ship’s bottom is apt to strike at low water, or when the sea runs high, by which she is exposed to the danger of sinking: and in the third, the anchor is liable to hook the broken and pointed ends of rocks, and tear away its flukes; whilst the cable, from the same cause, is constantly in danger of being cut through as it rubs on their edges. ”

“ The stream anchor is for use in a river or sheltered place, where a small anchor is sufficient to hold the ship. The stern anchor is use when it is required to moor at both head and stern, as is the case when there is not room for the ship to swing with the tide. The kedge anchors are generally of different sizes, one large and one small; they are used to warp the ship along a narrow channel, the kedge being carried out in a boat with the hempen cable attached to it, and dropped; the ship can then still be hauled to the anchor. ”

“ The breakers began to whiten about the ship. The wind was not violent, but the swell was terrible; and the long rollers filled the bay, breaking in forty feet of water, and covering the sea with foam. Our anchors held tolerably well; but we dragged slowly, until, from seven fathoms, we had shoaled our water to four and a half. A council of the officers being called, it was determined to get under way. A hawser and stream-anchor being sent out, in order to bring the ship's head in the proper direction for making sail, the cables were slipped. ”

“ For although it is not common to anchor in a greater depth than forty fathoms, yet if there is only one cable, and the ship rides in a storm and tempestuous sea, the anchor will of necessity sustain the whole weight and violent jerking of the ship, in a direction too nearly perpendicular. ”

“ It is difficult to disconnect the idea of ships' anchors from the idea of the ship's chief mate—the man who sees them go down clear and come up sometimes foul; because not even the most unremitting care can always prevent a ship, swinging to winds and tide, from taking an awkward turn of the cable round stock or fluke. Then the business of "getting the anchor" and securing it afterwards is unduly prolonged, and made a weariness to the chief mate. ”

“ The anchor, when let fall from the ship, carries the cable with it, and generally falls on the crown, then tilts over so that the stock lies flat on the bottom and one of the flukes sinks in to a considerable depth by its great weight; when the ship drags at the cable it lifts up the stock and throws the whole weight of the anchor on the fluke, and makes it sink completely; any further pull must bring up a large piece of the earth before it can be moved. ”

“ The sheet anchors (fig. 8) are stowed as far forward as is convenient in the waist of the ship, and are sometimes called the waist anchors; they are only used in cases of emergency, or in the event of any accident befalling the bowers. ”

“ The rareness with which the sheet anchor touched ground (the bottom) gave rise to the proverb, "To go ashore with the sheet anchor," as the ultimate expression of attention to duty; and the story ran of a British captain, a devoted ship-keeper, who, to a lieutenant remonstrating on the little privilege of leave enjoyed by the junior officers, replied: "Sir, when I and the sheet anchor go ashore, you may go with us." By the prescription of our seniors we had to tie to The Kedge Anchor, let us hope in the cause of progress, to haul us ahead ”

“ The size of anchors for various ships has been determined by practice, but is based upon the theory that as the anchor is required to withstand the force brought upon the ship by the wind and tide, which would otherwise cause her to drift, its strength must be nearly proportional to her resistance. ”

“ I soon afterwards saw him hauling away sturdily at a rope, and though he tumbled down very often, he was quickly again on his feet. The fife and fiddle were meantime sounding merrily, and, as with cheerful tramp the men passed round the capstan-bars, the anchor was speedily run up to the bows. What the lieutenant on the forecastle could mean when he shouted out “Man the cat-fall,” I could not divine, till I saw that some of the crew were securing the stock of the anchor by means of a tackle to a stout beam, which projected over the bows of the ship. ”

“ For they neither heard nor saw a musquet fired, unless at birds.
Just as we were going to weigh the anchor, to proceed farther up the bay, it began to blow and to rain as hard as before; so that we were obliged to veer away the cable again, and lay fast. Toward the evening, finding that the gale did not moderate, and that it might be some time before an opportunity offered to get higher up, I came to a resolution to heel the ship where we were; and, with this view, moored her with a kedge-anchor and hawser. ”

“ At sunset I bade farewell to dear little Ellen, who was indeed as pale as death, and in an hour afterward was on board the ship, where I found every thing in readiness for a hasty departure, the top-sails, jib and spanker were loosed, the anchor at the bows, and its place supplied by a small kedge, attached to the ship by a hawser, easily cut in case of need; the awnings were struck, and the decks covered with rigging and sails. ”

“ The yards were then trimmed, the anchor weighed, the cat-block hooked on, the fall stretched out, manned by “all hands and the cook,” and the anchor brought to the head with “cheerily men!” in full chorus. The ship being now under weigh, the light sails were set, one after another, and she was under full sail, before she had passed the sandy point. ”

“ They found, too, that there was a place where a ship might come to an anchor on the north side of it, though indeed the anchorage is inconvenient; for the bank extends but a little way, is steep too, and has very deep water upon it, so that you must come to an anchor very near the shore, and there lie exposed to all the winds but a southerly one. ”

“ Just how he arranged the stern anchors is not made clear to a landsman in Macdonough’s report or in any documents relating to the fight. If the reader will keep in mind the fact that a ship when at anchor always swings with her bow toward the wind, the matter will appear clearer. As the Yankee ships swung thus a hawser was carried from the stern of each ship either to the anchor or to some point on its cable, and made fast. These were the springs. So, then, the ship was held at each end to the anchor and could be made to swing broadside to the wind. ”

“ The helm having been put down and the sails thrown a-back, the quarter-boats were lowered down and sent away with the stream-anchor, which was dropped on the weather quarter, in six fathoms; the bower anchors were then cut away, in order to lighten the ship forward, but on heaving at the capstan, the stream anchor was found not to hold; and the wind, snow, and cold soon increased to such a degree, that it was with difficulty the crew could be kept on deck, to hoist out boats, and perform other necessary duties ”

“ Water too shallow will cause the ship to go aground, and water too deep will allow the anchor to drag. Type of Bottom: Choose the bottom that will best hold the anchor. Avoid rocky bottoms and select sandy or muddy bottoms if they are available. Proximity to navigational Hazards: Choose an anchorage as far away as possible from known navigational hazards. Proximity to Adjacent Ships: Anchor well away from adjacent vessels; ensure that another vessel will not swing over your own anchor on a current or wind shift. ”

“ But all the time, while the weather is pleasant and everything is moving along prosperously, the fact that the anchor is on board the ship and that it can be used in time of danger, gives a sense of security to all the passengers. If it were not there you would constantly fear, lest the storms or fog might come when your ship was near land or dangerous rocks or shoals, and then your ship might be lost with its many hundreds of lives on board, simply because it had no anchor. ”

“ A result which will accord with sound practice may be obtained by calculating the resistance of a given ship at a speed or twelve knots, and taking this tor the working load of the anchor. The working load should be half the testing strain, and consequently 1/6th of the breaking strength.
A large ironclad carries 8 anchors,—2 bower, 2 sheet, 1 stream, 1 stern, end 2 kedge. The bower anchors (fig. 7) are stowed at the bow, and are for ordinary use in a roadstead; if there is any difference in weight, the heavier is stowed on the starboard side, and is termed the best bower. ”

“ The people, who till this period had laboured as determined to conquer their difficulties, without a murmur or without a tear, seeing their efforts useless, many of them burst into tears, and wept like children. I gave orders for the anchors, of which we had two remaining, to be thrown over-board one of which, the spare anchor, had been most surprisingly hove in upon the fore-castle and mid-ship, when the ship had been upon her beem-ends, and gone through the decks. ”

“ To be serviceable the anchor must take hold of something. If it simply drags along it will not hold the ship; but the ship may go to pieces on the rocks, even though it has an anchor, which has already been cast over. Now in time of sorrow and perplexity or distress every one throws out an anchor. That is, he tries to take hold of something which will sustain him and keep him, just the [64] same as a boy who falls into the water would grab after a board. They say that a drowning man will even grasp after a straw in order to help to support his body, so that he may save his life. ”

“ Shoe for an Anchor Is made of a Piece of Baulk, or thick Stuff, one End cut with a Hole for the Bill of the Anchor to go into, and the other with a triangular Notch to receive the Stock, which [Pg 151] keeps off the Sheats, Tacks, and other running Rigging from gauling or being entangled with the Flooks. Shot of a Cable Is the splicing two or three Cables together, that a Ship may ride safe in deep Water, and in great Roads. Shovels Are allowed the Boatswains for trimming, heaving in or out their Ballast, or cleaning the Ship. ”

“ Viol A Cable-laid Rope, which being reeved through a large Block lashed at the Main-mast, is made use of by heaving at the Jeer Capston to weigh the Anchor when Nippers are brought on about the Cable. Vinegar Is allowed for washing the Ships between Decks when abroad, for preventing any Contagion spreading among the Men. Umbrello's Are Screens hung at the Stern over the Ship's Lights, to keep out the Sun, and are generally covered with Canvas or Kersey. Unmoar When a Ship or Vessel that Rides at two Anchors begins to get them up in order to Sail, she is Unmoaring. ”

“ The ship had closed-to within a quarter-mile of the beach, and the waves curled and topped around us, bearing us down upon the shore, which presented one continued surface of foam, extending to within half a cable’s length of our position. The captain waved his hand in silence to the quartermaster at the wheel, and the helm was put down. The ship turned slowly to the wind, pitching and chopping as the sails were spilling. When she had lost her way, the captain gave the order, “Let go the anchor. We will haul all at once, Mr. Falcon,” said the captain. ”

“ To weigh anchor tinder these circumstances required considerable exertion, for the pressure of the tide stretched the chains by which the ship was moored, and besides this, a strong southwester blew with full force on her hull, so that it required powerful engines to hoist the heavy anchors from their muddy beds. An anchor-boat, intended for this purpose, had just stoppered on the chains, but the windlasses were not sufficiently powerful, and they were obliged to use the steam apparatus which the Great Eastern had at her disposal. ”

“ At two o'clock, however, the anchor was quite off the ground, and the ship was in deep water; we were now therefore obliged to bring the cable to the capstern, and with great difficulty we got the anchor up. The gusts off the land were so violent, that, not daring to show any canvas, we lay-to under our bare poles, and the water was frequently torn up, and whirled round in the air much higher than our mast heads. ”

“ As far as memory serves me, I think we were justified in regarding it as more instructive than the American work assigned to us by the course, The Kedge Anchor, by a master in our navy named Brady. A kedge, the unprofessional must know, is a light anchor, dropped for a momentary stop, or to haul a ship ahead, the title being in so far very consonant to the object of instruction; whereas the sheet-anchor is the great and last stand-by of a vessel, let go as a final resource after thePage 79 two big "bowers," which constitute the usual reliance. ”