Today at the Shelburne shipyard we swapped the anchor over from port to starboard. Nice and cool in the shade and warm in the sun of this sunny spring day. Good weather, good fun, good spirits. Good Sailor stuff. Yay! We are told we that the winch is almost repaired and that we will be launching soon.
But why, o why, you may ask, would we want to shift the anchor from one side to the other in the first place? What difference does this make? Are we bored with nothing else to do? Busy work?
Well, here is how it goes:
Some many months back we knew that PICTON CASTLE’s spurling pipes needed to be replaced. The time had come. These are heavy steel pipes that channel and contain the anchor chain from anchor windlass on deck to the chain locker deep below. These have given 26+ years of uncomplaining service in getting our anchor chain guided from the deck, down through the carpenter’s workshop, cook’s cabin and “Bro Cave” into the chain locker. They were ready to be retired, they needed replacing. While these are quite heavy steel pipes, they are also impossible to paint on the inside with the chain rattling and banging around and up and down within, with oceans of the world’s saltwater sluicing up and down on bare and chain battered steel. Ask Donald about grinding noises of anchor chain in the spurling pipe, right by the head end of his bunk…
We replaced these schedule 80 steel pipes (heavy) with schedule 120 pipes (very heavy) some thick steel.
Our big old-fashioned Admiralty pattern anchor, sometimes referred to as fisherman style”, on the port bow has been put to very worthy use as a winter/storm anchor and chain 250 feet out from PICTON CASTLE’s dock in Lunenburg harbour. Having this anchor out when tied up for a longer spell, takes the weight of the ship off the wharf and its pilings, taking the strain off our wooden wharf during sporty south-easterly gales and sometimes 6 foot seas at our wharf. This means that the mooring hawsers do not part in winter storms nor is the fabric of our wharf wracked by the ship yanking on it with the seas that heavy weather brings with it.
Just now this anchor is situated on the bottom of Lunenburg harbour with all its chain (we left it there for the moment, got to get this all back soon!).
So, we had an empty port spurling pipe ready to go to be removed and replaced in Lunenburg. We then shifted our starboard anchor, a self-stowing stockless “Navy” anchor over to port. And we had good fun doing it in Lunenburg. It seems ages ago now. This exercise freed up the starboard spurling pipe, which was then replaced in shipyard in Shelburne in October last year, giving us a brand spanking new set of spurling pipes. Very solid and very satisfying.
But why not just leave the 1,000-pound anchor where it is on port? Who cares where it is? What does it matter, as long as it is somewhere usable? In fact, it is quite logical that we would shift our 1000-pound navy stockless back to starboard. But why? Just because it had been there before, and for no other reason? Blindly follow the “It has always been like this” mantra?
No Siree. No such thing.
This starboard location for the stockless anchor is based upon good seamanship. A simple but very pertinent reason: In coming alongside, PICTON CASTLE’s transverse thrust from her propellor, while going astern, is walking her stern to starboard. This little fact makes it easier by miles to take her starboard side-to any dock, other issues such as wind and currents permitting. The self-stowing anchor would not get in the way of a docking manoeuvre, whereas the (bigger) fisherman’s anchor protrudes quite a bit from the focs’le head and is quite vulnerable to getting caught in wharf piles, fenders, lamp posts, dog walkers, you name it when coming alongside. Therefore, we prefer to keep our big protruding fisherman’s anchor to port, away from the dock, and our self-stowing navy pattern to starboard, nicely out of the way.
Getting the anchor shifting job underway this morning, an all-hands briefing was held. A fulsome discussion of what are we planning to achieve and why, and what will we do to achieve what we set out to do? And, because PICTON CASTLE is a very much a seamanship training ship, this all was expanded somewhat to reflect the beautiful spring weather, and the fact that we are still stuck on the hard. Safely is as safely does.
See? When anchoring in usual circumstances, you can’t see the anchor (unless, of course, you are anchoring at Pitcairn’s Bounty Bay, where the water is so clear that you can easily make out anchor and chain on the bottom), and you cannot simply walk around the hull, on the seabed, with a gang in tow, learning the ins and outs of anchoring. And also why, for example, the stem of PICTON CASTLE has a heavy extra steel half-round attached to it, all the way down the forefoot and keel…
As you can imagine, this session was getting bigger. And longer. And the sun was shining. Gorgeous.
But we are not about a talkfest but about why and how. And then do. We talked about ground tackle, windlass, anchoring etc. Also, while on the dock under the hull, we made a bit of a complete tour around the hull pointing out a few things. Getting to know your ship kinda stuff. Good to do. Good for the soul.
We “ranged out” the anchor cable. We pulled up about a shot of chain from the locker, let it settle on the deck of the cradle, and then flaked the chain. Repeat six times. This is what you do when the ship is in dry dock, usually, to verify the condition of, and the markings on, the chain.
How much chain do you put out when you anchor? And how do you measure this?
Anchor chain is measured in shots (American) or shackles (British), although most mariners are on this point. I am sure all other seafaring languages have a unit measure. A shot consists of 15 fathoms of chain (which equals 90 feet or 27.5 metres). Anchor chain, when you buy it (yes, you can), comes in “shot” lengths of 90 feet, then joined up with a shackle (oh, you clever Brits!!), because you need more than one shot. These joining shackles are marked with red and white paint, and with wire, to give a visual clue how many shots of chain have been put out.
All in all, close on to six shots of chain are evident on the windlass when the bitter-end (the inboard end) is down to its lashing in the chain locker. The six-shot mark is then somewhere in the spurling pipe, close to the deck level in the forepeak (Bro Cave) above the chain locker. Tech-note: this is about 540 feet of massive chain. This is big heavy chain. Heavier than what is statutorily required for a ship of PICTON CASTLE’s size. It’s considered oversize chain by some. But not us, you want heavy chain. To be expanded upon in a later Cap Log. (Note to self: next time you buy anchor chain, go OVERSIZE, it is the weight, not the tensile strength, of the chain that’s doing the work. Get good stuff. And good stuff for peace of mind, unless you are planning to drag your anchor all over the place, calling All Hands at all hours of day and night).
As the entire anchor chain was flaked (laid) out on the deck of the cradle, we measured the length of the chain, and the distance between the shot marks. Because this is what we do. At PICTON CASTLE, we do not TRUST that we have so much chain, and that the shot marks will be right, because they are so nicely painted in white and red, like an official marking. We actually KNOW how much chain is out.
Note was taken on the overall condition of the chain, and, more specifically, for each single shot. Anchor chains, just like spurling pipes, are MANUFACTURED items that are subject to some wear over time, although proper anchor chain is amazingly durable stuff, made of far better steel than spurling pipes.
The 1000-pound anchor was then shifted across the cradle with tackles so it would be under its new anchor hawsepipe, so we would not drag it by its chain across the ship’s stem. We also had to dodge a few keel blocks attached to the cradle. You can see where this is going: a quick introduction to tackles, and how to move heavy stuff. Without breaking one’s back, and without anyone getting hurt. And without spending hours. I suppose I could have asked the shipyard to move the anchor with their forklift. As it was, we had a small shipyard crowd watching on in amazement as we went about this small piece of seamanship.
Once the anchor was shifted and the chain mostly hove up onto deck and into the chain locker, we painted out the first shot mark, as one does, at about 15 fathoms or 90 feet, from the anchor. Then continued to heave up until the anchor was just off the cradle’s deck, so we can rust chip and coat it in some preservative goodness..
Our gang of seven (plus Liam in the chain locker to flake the chain) took five minutes to heave up the first (sixth) shot. Huffing and puffing alright. After a break, the next shot was hove up in six minutes. More huffing and puffing. And so we went. The final shot was four minutes. But still huffing and puffing. Oh, how we long for the sea, and exercise, when, once we depart from French Polynesia, and after plenty of anchor windlass practice, we will be huffing and puffing no longer, but pulling up four shots in a single session, and joke about it. Makes for tight abs too.
Not long now!!!
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