ANCHOR OF A SHIP, is an instrument which, as it is commonly made, has been sufficiently described in the Encyclopedia. An improvement, however, has been proposed on its construction by Mr James Stuard of the parish of St Anne, Middlesex, who obtained a patent for his invention, dated Feb. 9. 1796.
The whole of this invention consists in making the anchor with one fluke or arm instead of two, and contriving to load that fluke or arm in such a manner as to make it always fall the right way. With this view Mr Stuard would have the shank of the anchor made very short, that it may cant the more when suspended by the cable; and he would have the arm and it made of bars in one length, that there may be no shoot or joining in the whole instrument. The bend of the shank and arm he would have rounded, and not angular as in the common anchor; and on this bend he would have a small shackle, or two plates with a small bolt between them, for the buoy-robe to be made fast to. Instead of wood, he proposes for the stock of the anchor a bar of wrought iron, loaded or covered at the ends with knobs of cast iron; and he would have the palm of the fluke or arm either to be composed entirely of cast iron, or to be a cast iron shell filled with lead. This weight of the palm, the shortness of the shank, and the structure of the stock, will no doubt make the anchor fall the right way; which, having no upper fluke, will never be tripped by the cable taking hold of it on the ship's swinging, nor will it prove so dangerous as the common anchor to such vessels as may happen to ground by it.