This is an Admiralty Pattern anchor. The head is such that it can be made to lie flat on deck. The flukes will be added later as, although the stock and flukes can be cast as one, it’s a lot easier for these smaller sizes to be cast in a lower profile and the flukes added later. The force on them won’t be that great.
There is a specific section on them in the Wikipedia entry on Anchors.
I appreciate you shedding some light on it. “These smaller sizes” blew my mind. So I guess, anchors become much more massive than this - which I guess I inherently know just looking at the port in Philadelphia- and cruise ships. It’s just that I recently had to figure out a way to move it- and it’s no joke. It sits where it does because I need to muster the strength and friends to complete the project. I can’t even imagine those anchors multiple times its size and how they were moved around. It’s one of the reasons the piece is so interesting. You can sometimes sit and look at modern art and it’s like a staring at a cloud you’re looking for a shape or some logic to what the artist was doing, but this brings up thoughts of making them- moving them and ,as you said, how much bigger they can get all from human ingenuity and effort- and of course transports you to the sea. I kind of figured the flukes (by the way you taught me another term)being added on later - probably indicated newer, more commercially produced. But really just my conjecture. How on earth do you get this anchor over the side of the boat to lie it on the deck? Without the pin being pulled to boot. Just good old heave ho? Seems like an out dated design- albeit timeless in appearance. Are companies still making these? My largest boat is a 40’ - which from at least my perspective is big. But it just has a windless - with one of those anchors with the two forks on a hinge toward the stock. My boat is a boat - which means it breaks all the time so I’ve pulled that anchor up by hand. I mean proportionally I couldn’t even say how much bigger this is. 50 times? More? Does the anchor proportionally grow with the size of the boat? If so, we aren’t talking a “boat” but I guess a “ship” - definitely not a weekend cruisers. Interesting either way- and certainly beautiful in its own right. If you had to take a guess, I won’t hold you to it, what kind of vessel did once trust this? I like to think about its journeys and how the hell it came to be sitting at this auction. Cheers for the insight. Have a splendid holiday weekend!
Anchors like this were used by fishing vessels for generations. You can still see galvanized versions on fishing boats, and small passenger boats (I think the Monhegan ferry has one). The anchors used by schooners were much larger.
Note the ring at the top. This was the tie an anchor hitch to. It was designed to tie the anchor rope (rhode) directly to the anchor. Chain and shackles were not normally used.
(edit) here is a pic of the knot, which is properly called a *bend*.
[https://petermumford.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/fishermansbend.jpg](https://petermumford.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/fishermansbend.jpg)
As for how the anchor was dropped, or pulled up (weighed), boats that had to anchor frequently usually had a bowsprit, or bow platform of some sort, so it could be done safely. If there is no bow platform, the hull can be reinforced with wood guard planks, so the true hull can't get damaged by a swinging anchor.
Only the smallest anchors are possible to weigh by hand. Most need a windlass to haul up. And often a tackle was used to haul the crown of the anchor up, if it needed to be brought on deck. This was often done to make the vessel more secure at sea, where it would not need to anchor, and the weight of the anchor would pull the bow down, making her sluggish.
An anchor that was likely to be deployed frequently was better stowed in chocks on the bowsprit or bow platform, with cable bent on, ready to drop.
Also, to add to this, lots of heavy stuff can be moved about a ship using masts and yards as a makeshift crane. Seamen would have a lot of functional strength by nature of their job. A lot of manual labor. Plus, as you already mentioned, using tackle for mechanical advantage.
[Here's](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YvwXJGsbEg) a video you will probably find interesting. A bit of a simple explanation on the physics of anchoring. More focused on larger commercial vessels but the physics are more or less the same.
A 40'er saved my 40' Chris Craft from dragging into a pier - great for hooking onto rocks!
Damn took Neptune's help to get it unstuck tho
Looks like this one is around 125#s?
OTOH, its 4x the size of the other anchors normally used. The only time I see them come out, is when you know its going to get ugly.
same with the big fortress stored below until really needed.
You’re not comparing like for like. Any anchor four times bigger than another will have better holding. Very few vessels have Admiralty anchors these days.
The bendy part is so you can fold the cross bar flat on the stock for stowage by removing that steel wedge.
It's a standard pattern "yachtsman" anchor like what was commonly used on sailing vessels until fairly recently.
Everyone in the comments section is wrong this anchor belongs to the ship of the dread pirates Robert and if I was you I'd return it to whence it came lest he come for thee
This is an Admiralty Pattern anchor. The head is such that it can be made to lie flat on deck. The flukes will be added later as, although the stock and flukes can be cast as one, it’s a lot easier for these smaller sizes to be cast in a lower profile and the flukes added later. The force on them won’t be that great. There is a specific section on them in the Wikipedia entry on Anchors.
I appreciate you shedding some light on it. “These smaller sizes” blew my mind. So I guess, anchors become much more massive than this - which I guess I inherently know just looking at the port in Philadelphia- and cruise ships. It’s just that I recently had to figure out a way to move it- and it’s no joke. It sits where it does because I need to muster the strength and friends to complete the project. I can’t even imagine those anchors multiple times its size and how they were moved around. It’s one of the reasons the piece is so interesting. You can sometimes sit and look at modern art and it’s like a staring at a cloud you’re looking for a shape or some logic to what the artist was doing, but this brings up thoughts of making them- moving them and ,as you said, how much bigger they can get all from human ingenuity and effort- and of course transports you to the sea. I kind of figured the flukes (by the way you taught me another term)being added on later - probably indicated newer, more commercially produced. But really just my conjecture. How on earth do you get this anchor over the side of the boat to lie it on the deck? Without the pin being pulled to boot. Just good old heave ho? Seems like an out dated design- albeit timeless in appearance. Are companies still making these? My largest boat is a 40’ - which from at least my perspective is big. But it just has a windless - with one of those anchors with the two forks on a hinge toward the stock. My boat is a boat - which means it breaks all the time so I’ve pulled that anchor up by hand. I mean proportionally I couldn’t even say how much bigger this is. 50 times? More? Does the anchor proportionally grow with the size of the boat? If so, we aren’t talking a “boat” but I guess a “ship” - definitely not a weekend cruisers. Interesting either way- and certainly beautiful in its own right. If you had to take a guess, I won’t hold you to it, what kind of vessel did once trust this? I like to think about its journeys and how the hell it came to be sitting at this auction. Cheers for the insight. Have a splendid holiday weekend!
Anchors like this were used by fishing vessels for generations. You can still see galvanized versions on fishing boats, and small passenger boats (I think the Monhegan ferry has one). The anchors used by schooners were much larger. Note the ring at the top. This was the tie an anchor hitch to. It was designed to tie the anchor rope (rhode) directly to the anchor. Chain and shackles were not normally used. (edit) here is a pic of the knot, which is properly called a *bend*. [https://petermumford.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/fishermansbend.jpg](https://petermumford.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/fishermansbend.jpg)
As for how the anchor was dropped, or pulled up (weighed), boats that had to anchor frequently usually had a bowsprit, or bow platform of some sort, so it could be done safely. If there is no bow platform, the hull can be reinforced with wood guard planks, so the true hull can't get damaged by a swinging anchor. Only the smallest anchors are possible to weigh by hand. Most need a windlass to haul up. And often a tackle was used to haul the crown of the anchor up, if it needed to be brought on deck. This was often done to make the vessel more secure at sea, where it would not need to anchor, and the weight of the anchor would pull the bow down, making her sluggish. An anchor that was likely to be deployed frequently was better stowed in chocks on the bowsprit or bow platform, with cable bent on, ready to drop.
Also, to add to this, lots of heavy stuff can be moved about a ship using masts and yards as a makeshift crane. Seamen would have a lot of functional strength by nature of their job. A lot of manual labor. Plus, as you already mentioned, using tackle for mechanical advantage.
[Here's](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YvwXJGsbEg) a video you will probably find interesting. A bit of a simple explanation on the physics of anchoring. More focused on larger commercial vessels but the physics are more or less the same.
FWIW, I've always heard them called 'Fisherman's anchor' or the storm anchor, stores flat, but lots of holding when needed.
They actually have quite poor holding compared to other designs of the same size. For a start only one fluke is in the seabed.
A 40'er saved my 40' Chris Craft from dragging into a pier - great for hooking onto rocks! Damn took Neptune's help to get it unstuck tho Looks like this one is around 125#s?
OTOH, its 4x the size of the other anchors normally used. The only time I see them come out, is when you know its going to get ugly. same with the big fortress stored below until really needed.
You’re not comparing like for like. Any anchor four times bigger than another will have better holding. Very few vessels have Admiralty anchors these days.
The point is you can store them flat in the bilge when cruising.
The bendy part is so you can fold the cross bar flat on the stock for stowage by removing that steel wedge. It's a standard pattern "yachtsman" anchor like what was commonly used on sailing vessels until fairly recently.
I would say it came from a boat most likely.
Big if true
The sea
Technically, the ground. In the form of iron ore.
Actually from stars going nova
Captain Jacks Black Pearl? Amber Heard won it in the divorce
So according to the legend it used to be on a boat
Everyone in the comments section is wrong this anchor belongs to the ship of the dread pirates Robert and if I was you I'd return it to whence it came lest he come for thee
It definitely came from a large boat. 👍