If you ever find yourself having to drop an anchor, please be careful
Anchors are a pretty important part of any ship. They keep it in place out in the open ocean. On large ships, anchors can weigh several tons, and the chains attached to them can weigh several more. When dealing with heavy equipment, sometimes things can get a little out of hand. Here are a few times when it did.
Always test the equipment
According to the uploader this little catastrophe took place on a newly-built German merchant vessel, so the problem here isn’t due to wear and tear, but probably poor installation or a design flaw. When lowering an anchor, you want to make sure the brake works. Otherwise this will happen to your brand new boat.
Be sure to check your surroundings
Before dropping the anchor, check that there’s nothing in the way of the anchor when it drops. This giant ship, which forget that important step, accidentally deployed its huge anchor on this poor, tiny tugboat. The anchor stopped, of course, but not quite they way you’d like.
Make sure you do your maintenance
Here we see an anchor drop that’s actually going quite well until it’s not. The operator is cautiously letting the chain out just a few links at a time before braking to prevent any runaway momentum, but then the brakes just seem to give out. It’s never a good thing when your ship catches on fire. Try to avoid this.
Be prepared for the worst
They say a chain is only as strong as its weakest link, but that’s not completely true. When one of those links snaps and sends a several-ton chain flying right at you, it’s as strong as every link put together. Case in point: this anchor chain on an oil rig.
Don’t rush it!
Anchors are really heavy, and when they’re going fast, they have a lot of momentum. This makes them extremely difficult to stop. If you’ve got a runaway anchor, the best you can do is run and hide. The anchor crew on the USS Tarawa back in 2001 learned this lesson the hard way.
Disclaimer: This video is intended for informational purpose only. This may not be construed as a news item or advice of any sort. Please consult the experts in that field for the authenticity of the presentations.
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Source: Popular Mechanics
