August 20th & 21st - Anchor Recording Part III

This weekend saw me as one of twelve trainees headed down to Chatham Royal Dockyard for an Anchor recording course run by Mark Beatie-Edwards of NAS and Gordon Le Pard, Maritime Archaeologist for Dorset County Council.

The course was a first for the NAS and follows on from the launch of the Big Anchor Project a few years ago, www.biganchorproject.com

We started off with the most basic of anchors, the stone anchor, in its many different forms from a simple block of stone through the introduction of a hole for a rope, to development of additional wooden arms to increase gripping power and far more complicated and ingenious killicks.

We then covered the more familiar stocked anchors working through the medieval "long shank" anchors to the traditional Admiralty pattern type. The importance of types of stock were also explored, metal or wooden, and what they meant for the archaeologist.

Finally the development of the stockless anchor was discussed and the differences between the most common types - Halls and Byers.



Sunday was a chance to put our knowledge onto practice with tour around the docks to identify the many different anchors on display (over 50) and start the recording process, making sure we gained as much experience as possible.

With so many anchors on display it was a busy morning and we looked at everything from a five metre tall long shank to a metal stocked bower from the Cutty Sark.

Of course recording information is of no use unless people can access it and this is what the Big Anchor Project is all about - an online database of anchors from around the world, on ships, in museums, underwater or just as a garden decoration!

We managed to add about another 20 records to the database over the weekend bringing its total to nearly 500.

The weekend gave me some valuable insights into anchor construction and use and I can't help but see anchors everywhere now!

The course certainly enthused me about the Big Anchor Project and I and a number of other participants are already planning some work so see what we can add to the database over the next few months.