ANCHOR, in maritime affairs, an ex tremely useful instrument, serving to re tain a ship or boat in its place.
It is a very large and heavy iron instru ment, with a double hook at one end, and a ring at the other, by which it is fastened to a cable.
It is cast into the bottom of the sea, or rivers, where, taking its hold, it keeps ships from being drawn away by the wind, tide, or currents.
The parts of an anchor are 1. The vIng to which the cable is fastened: 2. the beam, or shank, which is the longest part of the anchor : 3. the arm, which is that which runs into the ground: 4. the flonke or fluke, by some called the palm, the broad and peaked part, with its barbs, like the head of an arrow, which fastens into the ground : 5. the stock, a piece of wood fastened to the beam near the ring, serving to guide the fluke, so that it may fall right, and fix in the ground.
The following are the dimensions of the several parts of an anchor, as given by M. Bongier. The two arms generally form the arch of a circle, the centre of which is 3-8ths of the shank from the vertex, or Point where it is fixed to the shank ; each aria is equal to the same length or radius, so that the two arms together make an arch of 120 degrees : the flukes arc half the length of the arms, and their breadths two fifths of the said length. With respect to the thickness, the cir cumference of the throat or vertex of the shank is generally made about 1-5th part of its length, and the small end two thirds of the throat : the small end of the arms of the flukes three fourths of the circum ference of the shank of the throat.
Cast iron anchors have been proposed, and indeed,. from the improvements in this metal, it is probable they would be cheap and serviceable But when we consider the great importance of anchors to the lives and property intrusted in shipping, it would not be an act of pru dence to make an anchor of any material but the very best. It appears reasonable,
that a cast iron anchor, made broad in the flukes, and strong in the shank, and forti fied with a kind of edge-bar, knee, or bracket, in each angle, between the arm and the shank, might prove as trust-wor thy as a forged anchor, and be more than equal to the strain of any cable which is made.
There are several kinds of anchors : 1. the sheet anchor, which is the largest, and is never used but in violent storms, to hinder the ship from being driven ashore : 2. the two bowers, which are used for ships to ride in a harbour: 4 the stream anchor : 5. the grapnel. The iron of which anchors are made ought neither to be too soft nor too brittle ; for, if the iron be brittle, the anchor is apt to break, and if it be too soft, the anchor will bend. In order to give them a proper temper, it is the practice to join brittle with soft iron, and for this reason the Spanish and Swedish iron ought to be preferred.
The shank of an anchor is to be three times the lentrth of one of its flukes. and a ship of 500 tons hath her sheet anchor of 2000 weight; and so proportionably for others smaller or greater, although Anbin observes, that the anchors of a large veasel are made smaller in propor tion than those Of a small one.
The anchor is said to be a-peak, when the cable is perpendicular between the hawse and the anchor.
An anchor is said to come home, when it cannot hold the ship. An anchor is fbul, when, hy the turning of the ship, the cable is hitched about the fluke. To shoe an anchor, is to fit hoards upon the flukes, that it may hold the better in soft ground. When the anchor hangs right up and down by the ship's side, it is said to be a cock bell, upon the ship's coming to an anchor.
The inhabitants of Ceylon use large stones instead of anchors ; and in some other places of the Indies, the anchors are a kind of wooden machines loaded with stones.