Trotman's anchors

I was interested to read this morning in yesterday's Metro about an old anchor which had been recovered by a fishing boat working out of Brixham in Devon.

Its weight was given as 339 stone - the use of stone perhaps reflecting the continuing use of the stone in fish markets - which I compute to be about two tons. Quite a lot of anchor for a fishing boat to haul up, especially if the boat in question is of the modest size of the boats working out of Lyme Regis.

The anchor is of type called a Trotman's anchor, after the chap who invented it back in 1850 or so. It seems that it caused quite a stir in marine circles, even making it to Question Time at the House of Commons back in 1860, as reported at reference 1.

I learn that back in the days when we had a merchant marine, there was conflict between wanting the anchor to hold - perhaps when you were riding out a storm outside some harbour or other - and wanting to be able to get it up again in the morning when you wanted to be off. With the Trotman anchor being good at holding.

The story, rather improbably to my mind, seems to be that you don't just haul the thing up by its anchor chain, but that you fish it up by catching the right bit of it with a large hook.

While eBay, for once, cannot offer such an anchor, its best offer being a salesman's replica of something similar for getting on for £1,000. So no confirmation there of the valuation of £10,000. However, digging deeper, I get to Trinity Marine, a shop specialising in heavy memorabilia, which offers a Trotman anchor in much better condition for the figure quoted. See reference 3.

References

Reference 1: https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1860/jun/29/trotmans-anchors-question.

Reference 2: http://www.titanic-cad-plans.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/Trotmans-Anchors.pdf. For Trotman and the Titanic.

Reference 3: https://www.trinitymarine.co.uk/shop/huge-19th-century-trotmans-anchor/.