The Hypnotic Process of Installing Gigantic Anchor into US Aircraft Carrier

Welcome back to the FLUCTUS channel for a feature on ship anchors, learning the complex and fascinating process of maintaining the anchors of US aircraft carriers. From conventional anchors to innovative solutions, we also explore various techniques to maintain stability in even the roughest seas.

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[lyndababy]

The anchor cable (chain) plays the primary role in holding a ship at anchor. The mass of the cable and the catenary between the outer end of the cable and the ship offsets the mass of the ship and the dynamic forces acting on it. The anchor serves to hold the furthest outboard end of the cable in place. Direct pull on the anchor only normally occurs when the ship is weighing anchor, and immediately after the anchor is dropped and the ship backs away. At least that's how I learned it during my training in the Royal Navy.

[RJSUSMC]

STOP using artificial voices to read your narration for your videos. It's not "mili-watts": it's MEGA-Watts. WHY would a huge generator only be capable of generating "milli-watts" of power?

[bruceringrose]

It’s not an anchor wind-lass, it’s a capstan. A windlass has a horizontal main shaft and cable drum (think of a boat trailer which), a capstan has a vertical main shaft and cable drum (as shown in the video). In the case of ship anchors, the drum is a wildcat with proper grooves to engage the anchor chain and draw it in.

[matthewbeesley]

That inner piece on each chain link is a British patent/invention from the early 1800s. It stops the chain link from getting caught inside another link, thus fouling the chain.

[mountainryder]

How about a video on how they ‘cast’ those large anchors. The ‘mold’ on that has to be interesting

[usaturnuranus]

Hydraulics. It's really amazing the kind of things that such a basically simple system will allow in the most demanding of conditions.

[bmacdoug]

Great video, especially the second half about floating wind turbines. There is a small error in the script however that mistakes Megawatts for milliwatts. It's a factor of a billion, but, who's counting...

[DeadEyeDave]

While showing painting of the anchors, you never mentioned why some anchors are painted gold, while others are gray. A gold anchor is awarded to a ship that has a high retention and re-enlistment rate.

[The_Slippery_Slope_NZ]

None of the footage used in this was on screen long enough for me to become hypnotized.

[darktoadone]

I was a line handler once when I was just a nobody E-2 on the Midway, for some reason they didn't have enough people in Deck that day and the old man put out the word all departments send out people, so obviously E-3 and below gets the job. It wasn't to hard but once the rope hit the water, good lord that thing was heavy!

[MikeHudson-pxgc]

At one point in the design of the Ford class the Navy considered eliminating the STBD anchor as a cost cutting measure. Cost cutting was a high priority in the final design of the Ford Class.

[regenwurm]

I don't have any aircraft carrier, why do I watch this?😂😂

[RSTI]

A moment of negligence can cost you your life.
Utmost dedication to your job is a must.
Hat's off to all involved...

[dundonrl]

Never been around the 60K lb anchors (and 350 lb links) of a Nimitz class carrier, the biggest I've seen used was the 40K lb anchor and 155 lb links on the USS Essex LHD-2, they are still HUGE though!

[paulstecker]

When they repaint an aircraft carrier anchor, the paint usually lasts between 5 and 6 years. Thank you.

[MauricioRicardez]

Impressive. All your videos are beautiful.Thank you for your great work.

[robinblackmoor]

My brother was in the U.S. Navy on the USS Carl Vinson (CVN-70). His duty station was the anchor room.

[LUVUTV]

very impressive. I love watching them do it all

[paulstecker]

The c-wise giant was 504 ft. Long and 225 ft wide. It was taken out of service in 2009 and cut up it could carry a lot of barrels of oil too.

[Bluelagoonstudios]

There is a faulty explanation about the anchors, the anchor and the weight of the chains gives that stability. The anchor mostly doesn't engrave itself, it's just laying on the sea bottom. Depending on the sea bottom, if the anchor engrave itself, it would be very dangerous to bringing it back up, because it would pull the ship downwards.