Wednesday, October 24, 2007

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.

3 comments:

TO BECOME said...

Wow! thanks, Grandma

Pen of Jen said...

Daniel come and see the winners of the pen of jen caption contest!
penofjen.blogspot.com

Anonymous said...

I had wondered how they would have lowered the main anchor. Thanks for the info. My grandparents could have been on the Titanic. I do love the Gilded Age and the advances in technology at that time.