anchor

Home > Social Sciences and the Law > Political Science and Government > Naval and Nautical Affairs

anchor. The earliest forms, used by the ancient Greeks, were large stones, or baskets filled with stones, which were lowered to the seabed by ropes. As ships grew larger, more efficient anchors were required to hold them, and iron hooks, designed to dig themselves into the seabed as any strain came upon them, were introduced. Their invention has been credited variously to King Midas of Phrygia and to the seamen of Tuscany. A second arm to the hook, making them double headed, was added shortly afterwards, and the anchor thus took the general shape which we know today. An early improvement was the addition of a stock, or horizontal arm, at the top of the shank of the anchor and set at right angles to the hooks, or flukes, which ensured the flukes lay vertically on the seabed and thus dug themselves in to provide maximum holding power. The shape of the Chinese adze anchor, where the arms are at an acute angle with the shaft, was also known in the West from Roman times, but the Chinese developed it differently, having the stock close to the crown.

The basic anchor, known as the Admiralty or fisherman's anchor, has two flukes and the stock at right angles at the ring end of the shaft. It remained the standard pattern of anchor for centuries. A variation of it was the porter, patented in 1838, which had swivelling flukes. In the early part of the 19th century a further improvement to this type was made by curving the arms, which provided added strength in a period when welding was still an imperfect art. A persistent drawback to this type of anchor was the difficulty of stowing it, and the likelihood of it fouling the anchor cable. These disadvantages were largely overcome by the invention of the martin close-stowing anchor. In this type the stock was in the same plane as the arms, which themselves canted about a pivot in the crown of the anchor and thus forced the flukes downwards into the seabed to provide holding power. These anchors were stowed flat on an anchor bed when not in use.

It was a short step from the close-stowing to the stockless, or ‘patent’, anchor, the invention of an Englishman called Hawkins. Like the Martin this had two flukes pivoted at the crown, but had the advantages of making anchor beds unnecessary, as it could be stowed in the hawsepipe, and of simplicity in working with a resulting saving of time and labour. Another early stockless anchor was the wishbone, patented in 1822, where the fluke pivoted between its forked shank.

A further development of the stockless anchor resulted in simpler and more efficient designs, such as the CQR, a type of anchor mostly used by small vessels and yachts. The fluke is roughly in the form of two ploughshares set back to back and is held to the shank by a pin about which it can pivot to some extent. The CQR anchor has no stock, but when it reaches the bottom, any pull on it automatically turns it over so that the point of the fluke digs into the ground. It has considerably greater holding power than other anchors of a similar weight and, having no stock, cannot be fouled by the anchor cable. The CQR, which is not suitable for large vessels because of the difficulty of stowing it on board, was patented by Sir Geoffrey Taylor in 1933. He originally proposed to name it the ‘Secure’ anchor, but decided that the letters CQR, which give approximately the same sound, would be better remembered. In the USA it is usually known as a plow anchor.

An anchor that was originally specially developed for mooring offshore oil and gas rigs is the bruce anchor, but it is awkwardly shaped for stowing on deck. However, if weight is a critical factor a lighter Bruce anchor has the same holding power as, say, the CQR. The danforth is an American-designed anchor which appeared in 1939, in which the two pivoting flukes are placed close together with the shank between them. The stock is across the crown of the anchor instead of in the more usual place at the top of the shank, and this makes it impossible for the anchor to be fouled by the cable. It has great holding power for its weight, similar to that of the CQR anchor, but has the advantage of stowing flatter on the deck. It is deservedly popular for small craft such as yachts. The two most recent developments for motor boats or yachts are the delta anchor, introduced in 1990 after intensive research and development by its manufacturers, and the steadfast anchor which first appeared in 1992. Both these have superior holding power for their weight.

Efficiency factors of the different types of anchor have been worked out but are apt to be misleading as so much depends on the type of ground into which the anchor beds itself.

To anchor, to let go the anchor.

See also anchorage; anchor buoy; anchor warp; anchor watch; apeak; a-trip; a-weigh; back, to (4); becue, to; bower anchors; cathead; cockbill; drag; fish, to; kedge; killick; lunch hook; sea anchor; sheet anchor; shoe; stream anchor.

anchor device cast overboard to secure a ship, boat, or other floating object by means of weight, friction, or hooks called flukes. In ancient times an anchor was often merely a large stone, a bag or basket of stones, a bag of sand, or, as with the Egyptians, a lead-weighted log. The Greeks are credited with the first use of iron anchors, while the Romans had metal devices with arms similar to modern anchors. The ordinary modern anchor consists of a shank (the stem, at the top of which is the anchor ring), a stock (the crosspiece at the top of the shank, either fixed or removable), a crown (the bottom portion), and arms, attached near the base of the shank at a right angle to the stock and curving upward to end in flat, triangular flukes. Other types of anchors include the patent anchor, which has either no stock at all or a stock lying in the same plane as the arms; the stream, or stern anchor, lighter than the regular anchor and used in narrow or congested waters where there is no room for the vessel to swing with the tide; and the grapnel, a small four-armed anchor used to recover lost objects. A sea anchor is a wooden or metal framework covered with canvas and weighted at the bottom; it is a temporary device used by disabled ships. Modern ships have several anchors; usually there are two forward and two aft. Formerly made of wrought iron, anchors are now usually made of forged steel.

an·chor / ˈangkər/ • n. 1. a heavy object attached to a rope or chain and used to moor a vessel to the sea bottom, typically one having a metal shank with a ring at one end for the rope and a pair of curved and/or barbed flukes at the other. ∎ fig. a person or thing that provides stability or confidence in an otherwise uncertain situation: the European Community is the economic anchor of the New Europe. ∎  (in full anchor store) a store, e.g., a department store, that is the principal tenant of a mall or a shopping center. 2. an anchorman or anchorwoman, esp. in broadcasting or athletics. • v. [tr.] 1. moor (a ship) to the sea bottom with an anchor: the ship was anchored in the lee of the island| [intr.] we anchored in the harbor. ∎  secure firmly in position: with cords and pitons they anchored him to the rock. ∎  provide with a firm basis or foundation: it is important that policy be anchored to some acceptable theoretical basis. 2. to act or serve as an anchor for (a news program or sporting event). PHRASES: at anchor (of a ship) moored by means of an anchor. drop anchor (of a ship) let down the anchor and moor. weigh (or raise or heave) anchor (of a ship) take up the anchor when ready to depart.

anchor

anchor
1. Rock anchors are long bolts or cables with one end grouted into a drill hole and with a plate and nut on the exposed end. These can carry considerable loads, although slow failure of the rock will lessen the support.

2. Soil anchors may be used in sediments where the material is strong enough to provide sufficient reaction to the load. Holes must be drilled and the anchor installed and grouted quickly, as soil around the hole may crumble and reduce the strength of the bond.

anchor.
1. Misnomer for the arrow-head, dart, or tongue-like ornament alternating with the egg-like form enriching e.g. the ovolo moulding or the echinus of the Ionic capital.

2. Exposed head of a metal tie or anchor-beam preventing the bulging of walls, often associated with a circular plate, or S-, X-, or Y-shapes on the external face of the wall.

3. Attribute of Hope, later of Hope.

anchor n. a heavy object attached to a rope or chain and used to moor a vessel to the sea bottom
v. moor (a ship) to the sea bottom with an anchor: we anchored in the harbor.
at anchor (of a ship) moored by means of an anchor.
drop anchor (of a ship) let down the anchor and moor.
weigh or raise or heave anchor (of a ship) take up the anchor when ready to start sailing.

anchor figuratively, a source of security and confidence. An anchor in Christian tradition is a symbol of hope, from a passage in Hebrews 6:19; it is also the emblem of St Clement, who was martyred by being thrown into the sea with an anchor round his neck.
weigh anchor (of a ship) take up the anchor when ready to start sailing.

See also foul anchor.

anchor appliance for mooring a vessel to the bottom. OE. ancor, -er, ancra — L. anc(h)ora — Gr. ágkūra; cf. late OHG., G. anker, ON. akkeri. Reinforced in ME. by (O)F. ancre.
So anchor vb. XIII. — (O)F. ancrer or medL. anc(h)orāre. Hence anchorage XVI, after F. ancrage.

anchor An area on a WEB PAGE which, when clicked by the user of a BROWSER, displays the WEB PAGE which is referred to by the URL associated with the anchor. An anchor can be a TEXT ANCHOR or a GRAPHIC ANCHOR. See also ANCHOR IMAGE.

anchor Vessels were anchored from the stern (Acts 27: 29). An anchor is used in Heb. 6: 19 as a metaphor for Christian hope.

anchor •alpaca, attacker, backer, clacker, claqueur, cracker, Dhaka, hacker, Hakka, knacker, lacquer, maraca, paca, packer, sifaka, slacker, smacker, stacker, tacker, tracker, whacker, yakka •Kafka •anchor, banker, Bianca, canker, Casablanca, Costa Blanca, flanker, franker, hanker, lingua franca, Lubyanka, rancour (US rancor), ranker, Salamanca, spanker, Sri Lanka, tanka, tanker, up-anchor, wanker •Alaska, lascar, Madagascar, Nebraska •Kamchatka • linebacker • outbacker •hijacker, skyjacker •Schumacher • backpacker •safecracker • wisecracker •nutcracker • firecracker • ransacker •scrimshanker • bushwhacker •barker, haka, Kabaka, Lusaka, marker, moussaka, nosy parker, Oaxaca, Osaka, parka, Shaka, Zarqa •asker, masker •backmarker • waymarker •Becker, checker, Cheka, chequer, Dekker, exchequer, Flecker, mecca, Neckar, Necker, pecker, Quebecker, Rebecca, Rijeka, trekker, weka, wrecker •sepulchre (US sepulcher) • Cuenca •burlesquer, Francesca, Wesker •woodpecker