If everything is ready for leaving the anchor age, the heaving continues until the chain is vertical, or, in nautical terms, up and down (the anchor is then said to be apcak), the anchor is broken out and hoisted to a convenient position at the hawsepipe, when it is said to be up. In old-type ships, a tackle called the eat was next used; a hook on the lower block of the cat-fall was inserted in the ring of the anchor, and the latter was vatted by being pulled up to the cathead, which projected slightly from the ship's side; the fish tackle was then hooked to the crown, and the other end of the anchor pulled up until the shank was about horizontal and the inboard arm rested on an inclined iron plate called the bill-boami, the latter operation con stituting fishing. The anchor was now secured by small chains, one in the ring called the ring stopper; and the other, around the shank close to the outboard arm, called the shank painter. One end of each of these chains led to a trigger, by striking which the anchor was let go with ease and certainty. Under some circumstances it is desirable to corkbil/ the anchor before letting it go. This is done by easing away the shank painter until the anchor hangs at the cathead by the ring stopper: it is then said to be u-coekbill. in most modern ships there is secured on the shank of the anchor, at the balancing point, a link called the balaeec-link. When the anchor is hove up to the hawsepipe (i.e., the east iron pipe in the ship's bow through which the chain passes), the cat is hooked to the balance link, and the anchor is lifted in a horizontal position and put in place on the bill-board. Instead of a cathead, this form of eat requires a heavy cat davit, or derrick, standing eight or ten feet above the deck, and mounted upon a swivel stand. In letting go the anchor, it is necessary to control the speed of the chain as it goes out. For this purpose it is bitted (single
bitted, with one turn around the bitt) ; this prevents the velocity of the chain from becoming too great. When a sufficient quantity of chain has run out, the brake is put on the windlass, and the compressor (a curved arm which grips and holds the chain) hauled to. The stoppers are then put on and the chain is secure.
A sea-anehor is variously constructed; it usual ly floats, and is then made up of spars and can vas, or something that will not sink and will offer resistance to the water; but it is sometimes made of materials too heavy to float, and is then held up more or less by the pull on the anchor rope. Its object is to keep a boat or ship with her bow up to the seas, and so enable her to ride them better and roll and wallow about less; and it accomplishes this by being in or below the sur face of the water, so that it tends to drift more slowly than the boat or ship which is exposed to the force of the wind and of the waves.
Mooring anchors are of various types and arc designed for permanent moorings; they are used for holding in place large mooring buoys to which ships may secure in lieu of anch oring, or as anchors for buoys marking a channel or shoal. As has already been stated, a moor ing anchor may consist merely of e heavy stone, but others are of the mushroom, or screw, form.
Mushroom anchors of one type have a saucer-shaped head, from the concave side of which extends the shank, which has a shackle in the end for the chain; the other type consists merely of the iron saucer, with the shackle on the convex side; in this second type, the anchor holds largely by suc tion. Screw anchors, as their name implies, are shaped like screws with very broad flanges, and are screwed down into the mud by means of a long bar called the key.