An´chor

an implement for holding a ship or other ve el at rest in the water. In ancient times large stones or crooked pieces of wood heavily weighted with metal were used for this purpose. The anchor now used is of iron, formed with a strong shank , at one extremity of which is the crown , from which branch out two arms , terminating in broad palms or flukes , the sharp extremity of which is the peak or bill ; at the other end of the shank is the stock (fixed at right angles to the plane of the arms), behind which is the ring , to which a cable can be attached. The principal use of the stock is to 156 cause the arms to fall so as one of the flukes shall enter the ground. Many anchors are made nowadays without a stock. The anchors of the largest size carried by men-of-war are the best and small bowers , the sheet , and the spare , to which are added the stream and the kedge , which are used for anchoring in a stream or other sheltered place and for warping the ve el from one place to another. Many improvements and novelties in the shape and construction of anchors have been introduced within recent times. The principal names connected with those alterations are those of Lieutenant Rodgers, who introduced the hollow-shanked anchor with the view of increasing the strength without adding to the weight; Porter, who made the arms and flukes movable by pivoting them to the stock instead of fixing them immovably, causing the anchor to take a readier and firmer hold, and avoiding the chance of the cable becoming foul; Trotman, who further improved on Porter's invention; and M. Martin, whose anchor is of very peculiar form, and is constructed so as to be self-canting, the arms revolving through an angle of 30° either way, and the sharp points of the flukes being always ready to enter the ground. IMG:4014330425200354480_image055.jpg:Anchor used on Lusitania, Mauretania, etc Type of Anchor used on Lusitania, Mauretania, .