The Titanic's center anchor

The Titanic center anchor is on record for a little over 15 tons, to be exact 34,188lbs! Thats still impressive for even todays standards.


The Titanic's center anchor was manufactured by Noah Hingley & Sons of Netherton. The type of anchor seen here is still used today!
The center anchor weighed so much that they had to have a small crane to lift it over the side of the ship.
At the time the Titanic, and the Olympic were built the anchors on these ships were the biggest ones in the world.
You don't really think about it, but these anchors had to be under control the whole time, other wise they would turn into a 15 ton wrecking ball! The handling of anchors is actually a amazing procedure, and all the thinking that goes into this mass of steel. Because when you lift something that weighs 15 tons over the side of a ship, a lot of things have to be just right, as it is a risky situation to handle.

A fun little fact

The force that the Titanic hit the iceberg on the night of April 14th, 1912, was equal to the broadside of a battleship!
Now that may seem outrages, but just think of 50,000+ tons of steel slamming into rock hard ice, going about 26mph!