What Is An Anchor

The anchor is to find an accurate position for the docking direction of the hull when the ship is docked, and plays a strong fixed role.

Anchor generally refers to ship anchor, which is the main component of anchoring equipment. Iron boat anchors are connected to the boat with iron chains, and the anchor is dropped to the bottom of the water to make the boat stop stable.

The ancient anchor was a large stone or a basket full of stones, called "anchor". The anchorite is tied with a rope and sinks to the bottom of the water, and the ship is anchored according to its weight. Later, there were wooden claws and stone anchors, that is, wooden claws were tied to both sides of the stone, and the boat was moored by weight and holding power. There have been records of metal anchors in Southern China. Ancient Chinese sailing ships used four-claw iron anchors, which have excellent performance and are still used on sampans and small boats.

Modern anchors are made of cast steel or forged steel, and there are four main types.

① Anchor with rod: The anchor claw and the anchor shaft are usually a whole, and there is a cross bar perpendicular to the plane of the anchor claw. Rod anchors are mostly double claws, and some are single claws. When in use, one claw bites deeper into the soil and has a large holding power, but because of the crossbar, it is inconvenient to store, and it is mostly used for small ships. The main types of rod anchors are navy anchors (Figure 2), single-claw anchors (Figure 3), Foshan anchors, and Japanese anchors.

②Rodless anchor: The anchor claw and the anchor rod can rotate at a certain angle relative to each other, and there is no cross rod. When in use, two anchor claws bite into the soil at the same time, which is convenient for anchoring and storage, and is the most widely used. The representative of the rodless anchors is the Hall anchor (Figure 1) and its improved Spike anchor.

③High holding power anchor: The anchor claw is wide and can be rotated at a certain angle, and the anchor head or the middle of the anchor claw has a protruding rod to stabilize it. Due to the large area of the anchor claws on the soil and the large holding power, it is suitable for sandy or soft soil. The main types of high holding power anchors are Danforth anchors, Markov large claw anchors, and speedboat anchors.

④Special anchors: The shape is different from general anchors, such as fungus-shaped anchors. The anchor heads are fungus-shaped or umbrella-shaped. They bite deeper into the soil, have high holding power, and are not easy to move. They are mostly used for long-term anchoring and positioning, such as light boats and buoys. Fixed anchors for, barges, etc.