The danger of fouling the anchor by paying the chain down on top of it is not as serious in the case of a patent anchor as in one of the old type, but it is much better to avoid this if practicable in any case, by having a very little way on the ship at the instant of actually placing the anchor. The sooner the way can be checked after this instant, the better. WEIGHING. In heaving in, the windlass and the cable may be relieved by a judicious use of engines and the helm, and the officer on the bridge should be kept informed of the direction in which the chain "tends" or "grows" on the bow, and whether it is taut or slack. If there is much tension on the chain when a shackle or swivel comes to the wildcat, there will be trouble from the slipping of the chain, as swivels and shackles are necessarily larger and longer than the links, and cannot take the lugs of the chain-grab so securely. This trouble may always be expected when the depth of water is such that a swivel or a shackle is on the wildcat in breaking ground or after the anchor is aweigh. It may be met by clapping a "hook-rope" on the cable at once and taking this to the "gypsey or the capstan. If neither of these is convenient, a deck tackle may be hooked on and well manned. If the drift between the windlass and the locker admits of such a thing, a tackle abaft and below the wildcat is very helpful, tending not so much to relieve the stress as to jam the chain down into its place on the wildcat, and so to prevent slipping. In ships where this difficulty is to be anticipated, it should be prepared for as part of the regular preparations for getting underway. If the controller is as heavy and as strongly secured as it should be, it serves a very useful purpose here in preventing surging, the block being left down so that the chain drops into it, link by link, in coming in. It should be noted that this is quite a different thing from attempting to catch the chain when running out with some velocity. In the present case, the chain cannot slip more than the length of a link and so cannot acquire any considerable momentum. Shackles and swivels, with the links adjoining them, are, in cables of standard manufacture, made of lengths and sizes carefully proportioned to the rest of the chain and to the cable-holders with which they are to be used. Improvements in this direction and in the design of the cable-holders have greatly reduced the difficulties described above. In cables like the latest ones for the United States Navy, where there is neither a shackle nor a swivel between five fathoms and forty-five, it is unusual for either of them to come to the windlass in breaking ground. STOWING ANCHORS. Plate 75 shows the details of handling and stowing the bower anchor of an old-fashioned ship. The anchor being up, and the cat-and-fish overhauled, the cat is hooked and manned. When the chain is ready for surging, the cat is hauled taut, the order given to "surge," and the ring is run up to the cathead, where it is hung by a "ring-stopper," the cat being slacked to let the stopper take the weight. The fish is hooked over the inner fluke (from forward, aft), and the fluke hoisted to the bill-board. and hung there by the "shank-painter." If the stock takes against the bow in fishing, it may be canted clear by a "stocktackle" hooked to a strap on the outer (upper) end, and led across the forecastle. The inner links of the ring-stopper and shank-painter are engaged by tumblers controlled by a single lever. This arrangement admits of releasing both ends of the anchor simultaneously in letting go. The next step is to "ring up "; viz., to get the ring close up to the cat-head. The cat-fall is unrove, the cat-block gotten out of the way, and the ring-rope, a stout line of proper length with a thimble in the hauling end, is rove through the sheaves of the cathead and the ring of the anchor and made fast to the shank of the anchor or to the cat-head. A tackle is hooked to the thimble in the inner end and led across the forecastle, and the ring is bowsed up close to the cat-head, the slack of the ring-stopper being taken in at the same time. If the anchor is to be kept in readiness for letting go, it is now left hanging by the ring-stopper and shankpainter with its inner fluke resting upon the outer (sloping) surface of the bill-board. If it is to be secured for sea, the "stock-tackle" is hooked to a strap on the stock, and a "billtackle" to a strap on the inner arm, and this arm is roused inboard until the palm overhangs the inner edge of the bill-board. Extra lashings are then passed, on the inner fluke, the shank and the stock. When off soundings, the chain is unbent and the hawse-bucklers closed. To get the anchor off the bow ready for letting go, the lashings |