.
.
| ANCHORS |
| Raising the two anchors was done with a windlass
which consisted of a steam powered piston engine connected to two wildcats on
the main deck. A third spare anchor was connected to the "Dummy Wildcat" was
only for riding to the spare anchor and was not connected to the driving engine.
(The spare anchor was removed between the last 1930s and early 1942). The engine has twin horizontal 17 inch diameter cylinders with a 14 inch stroke. Powered by steam, the engine operated at 150 psi but all parts were designed to withstand full boiler pressure. The engine is unchanged from 1914. The engine could raise the two 19,000 lbs anchors the distance of six fathoms (36 feet) of chain in one minute. Each anchor was connected to 135 fathoms (810 feet) of chain with each each link weighing 94 lbs. Originally for the crew on the main deck to communicate with the operators in the Windlass Machinery Room, they had voice tubes and a signaling bell (which came through the main deck in the Wardroom Officer's Washroom-Water Closet, 10 feet from the bow). When the anchors were raised and lowered, the chain went through a hawse pipe in the forward most Wardroom Officer Staterooms. |
|
|
|
 |
.
Started 11 May 1999 Chuck Moore, FTV (1st Texas Volunteers) BB35 volunteer group