When a freight ship loses control of its anchor, bad things happen

Minor note: The crossbar on the links of anchor chain are there to make it heavier rather than stronger. You want the bottom of the chain heavier than the rest of it so that it comes away from the anchor relatively horizontal, but the higher sections lighter and more vertical so that the circle that the ship swings around as the current changes is smaller.

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Dare I say it? That’s off the chain

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I see no … hard hats

T=1m47s, 1m53s

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I think you mean p=mv (as speed doesn’t appear in F=ma and that you really should be worried about the transference of its momentum.)

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Yes. My (limited) physics failed me. My apologies.

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I call dibs on the band name “The Flaming Winches”.

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Whilst not as relevant, Flaming Wenches is a much better band name.

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Well, that would be too obvious.

Back in the day, when there were teletext classified ads on cable TV, I saw an ad for a boat that came with a trailer with an “electric wench”. Sounded very tempting, but I didn’t have the cash.

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I think it was working, that’s why it started slowing down. But that momentum thing didn’t work in their favor and it looks like it just burned up the emergency brake as well.

Even in scrape steel prices that going to be expensive to replace.

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I see no gloves, goggles, hard hats or fear, and thereby suspect this involves Russians.

This primed me to expect that the anchor would gain so much momentum that it dragged the whole ship with it beneath the surface, leaving only the person filming to make some absurdly laconic remark in a conversational tone from a lifeboat: “Boat sank.”

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It’s also for strength. The weight helps the anchor bite, as you say. But the crossbars act in compression to reduce the elongation of the link, which, if allowed to happen, places additional tensile stress on the outside of the curved ends of the link.

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That’s grease or oil burning, not metal.

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They go looking for them to salvage, and often retrieve them. They trawl the seabed with a grappling hook, trying to pick up the chain. These days, the search might also be enhanced by the use of some sort of electromagnetic sensor.

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Just last weekend I toured a WWII aircraft carrier that sits in Alameda, Calif., the USS Hornet. As I remember, each link in the anchor chain weighed 113 lbs.

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I was on a ship for 3 years, and worked in the mooring stations at times. You can actually fit through the hole the chain goes through, provided you get caught in the chain first. Those mooring lines are fun too - E = ½kx^2. You don’t really get a second chance if you’re standing in the wrong place at the wrong time.

http://makegif.com/g16XD.gif



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Heavy, man, Real heavy

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Also gloves.

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How do you say OMFG in Russian?

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ОмФБ
(or not, the OMG part is translated, the F transliterated)

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I think that’s the grease of the restrictor gear that’s on fire there. Seen it happen on (big) wire spools. The restrictor gear is there to keep it from moving too fast when it comes out and to lock it in place. Obvious it’s a little overstressed here. Looks like it almost managed to stop it, but then NOPE.

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