Anchor away!

[corydoras]

I don't think he meant to let the brake on the windlass off just as much as that.

 

[ayjay]

What's burning? Grease on the thingy? (I don't really do nautical terms).

[chesters1]

There must be some sort of friction clutch thats failed ,the chap operating it seems to be frationally turning the wheel but the chain moved faster than the apparent turning of the wheel controlled it ,even the other chap helping couldnt stop it so i think mechanical failure not operator failure in this case?

Cory will no doubt advise how it works ,seems a pretty small chain thought ?

Did they lose the anchor? Reminds me of our fishing days we dropped anchor at night on our first trip ,and merely wrapped the chain round the cleat and went to sleep ,on wakening to my horror noticed the end of the chain hanging attached to nothing at all inside the boat! Had i let the boat drift a couple more feet the chain and achor would have been still at nab tower

Luckily we had a fishermans anchor on rope as a backup but a fluked anchor needs chain to work

 

Whoops no anchor

Edited July 15, 2017 by chesters1

[corydoras]

There must be some sort of friction clutch thats failed ,the chap operating it seems to be frationally turning the wheel but the chain moved faster than the apparent turning of the wheel controlled it ,even the other chap helping couldnt stop it so i think mechanical failure not operator failure in this case?

Cory will no doubt advise how it works ,seems a pretty small chain thought ?

Did they lose the anchor? Reminds me of our fishing days we dropped anchor at night on our first trip ,and merely wrapped the chain round the cleat and went to sleep ,on wakening to my horror noticed the end of the chain hanging attached to nothing at all inside the boat! Had i let the boat drift a couple more feet the chain and achor would have been still at nab tower

Luckily we had a fishermans anchor on rope as a backup but a fluked anchor needs chain to work

 

Whoops no anchor

 

There must be some sort of friction clutch thats failed ,the chap operating it seems to be frationally turning the wheel but the chain moved faster than the apparent turning of the wheel controlled it ,even the other chap helping couldnt stop it so i think mechanical failure not operator failure in this case?

Cory will no doubt advise how it works ,seems a pretty small chain thought ?

Did they lose the anchor? Reminds me of our fishing days we dropped anchor at night on our first trip ,and merely wrapped the chain round the cleat and went to sleep ,on wakening to my horror noticed the end of the chain hanging attached to nothing at all inside the boat! Had i let the boat drift a couple more feet the chain and achor would have been still at nab tower

Luckily we had a fishermans anchor on rope as a backup but a fluked anchor needs chain to work

 

Whoops no anchor

So one thing at a time, what do you mean by "small chain" do you mean length or the size of the links?

 

It all really starts to go wrong about 1 minute in from start. He tries to put the brake back on again but the chain has to much momentum then, I'm guessing, but my guess that each link probably weighs more than 1cwt once the chain has a critical momentum you reach a "tipping point" and nothing will stop it. There is a clutch chesters but clutch is more for weighing anchor than dropping it.

.

I'm no chippie (carpenter's job to drop anchor and maintain windlasses and maintain all mooring gear, at least on British ships) but I suspect combination of causes. Releasing the brake a few too many turns, worn out brake linings and brake linings contaminated with oil and grease. The oil and grease is probably what caught fire. One last thing it would appear water was a tad deeper than they were expecting, but I was a pantryman, not a chippie.

 

Did they lose the anchor well yes, but ships carry a spare anchor, but not a spare locker full of chain. I've never seen an anchor ran out to the end of the chain before. When they ran out of chain either the chain parted or it ripped the last link and the big shackle securing it to the bottom of the locker out.

 

As you say big fluke anchors need a chain. This is because contrary to common sense it is not the weight of the anchors that hold the ship in place it's the weight of the chains.

 

Normally it works like this.

 

Once you are at the anchorage. Stop main engine, Once vessel has stopped drop starboard anchor. Once anchor is on the bottom and chain straight up and down.Dead slow ahead and continue to pay out chain. Once enough chain is out (depends on how deep water is) stop main engine. Drop port anchor. Once port anchor is straight up and down dead slow astern. Pay out port anchor at the same time as you wind in starboard anchor. Once the same amount of chain is out on bot sides, stop main engine. Finished with engines.

[chesters1]

I meant the chain looks thin as in theres a difference side on ,the warships i have seen in pompey seems to have much thicker chain so i presume the ship in question is small?

Theres a lot of gap in the links some of the ones i have seen have little space to see through ,perhaps different metal composition?

Mind you modern ships donr really need anchors except in extreme cases bow and stern thrusters can keep them in position and anchors are not much good in water deeper than the lenght of the chain as we found out fishing lol

A lot of people think a 100 feet of chain means you can anchor in the same depth of water but its not how anchors work

Edited July 15, 2017 by chesters1

[corydoras]

I meant the chain looks thin as in theres a difference side on ,the warships i have seen in pompey seems to have much thicker chain so i presume the ship in question is small?

Theres a lot of gap in the links some of the ones i have seen have little space to see through ,perhaps different metal composition?

Mind you modern ships donr really need anchors except in extreme cases bow and stern thrusters can keep them in position and anchors are not much good in water deeper than the lenght of the chain as we found out fishing lol

A lot of people think a 100 feet of chain means you can anchor in the same depth of water but its not how anchors work

The chain in the clip is a fairly chunky one. Difficult to tell how big that ship is, but the windlass is not a baby one.

 

If a ship had to stop for some reason in water too deep to anchor in you would not bother with thrusters you would just "go with the flow". That is not the kind of situation any Ship's Master wishes to find himself in. It happened to me once. We were in the middle of nowhere. The nearest land was the Philippines and they were some eight hundred miles off, when the engine broke down. It took ten days to fix. During that ten days we were all crapping ourselves because if a wind had got up we would not have been able to keep our head into the wind or the waves. The only ships I know of that can "hold a position" are drill ships and some oil rig and gas rig supply boats that are equipped with Dynamic Positioning System. DMS need thrusters all the way round the hull, not just front and back. They also need a fancy computer to read the position using GPS and then control the thrusters to maintain position.

 

Drill ships are pretty impressive. They can maintain position so well that they can drill for oil in water far too deep for any anchors.

[chesters1]

This is a big chain but i think you could make the links a bit thicker if you tried lol

http://twentytwowords.com/anchor-chain-for-the-worlds-largest-ship-is-so-big-it-makes-humans-look-like-mini-figurines/