Boatnerd Discussion Forum

I saw chain marks high on the side of the Saginaw. I was wondering how they got there. Now I know!

The Badger drops one of their anchors and uses it to turn on everytime they dock.

Dragging anchor is part of ship handling. Down-river, at Marysville, where the pipelines to/from the Canadian refineries go under the river, big yellow signs on both sides of the river: "Do Not Drag Anchor"

In the "good old days" it was very comon to use the anchor going into the ore docks in the upper lakes. On the other end of the lakes, the Joe Thompson would frequently use the stern anchor going into Huron. The advantage in both cases was better steering with lower speed. Mike

This is the HLWhite after she arrived at the dock. She pulled the anchor up shortly.

Hi Lee, can you post the White pics here? Neat stuff, I didn't realize they still used them for maneuvering.

The Lee A arrived in winds gusting over 30 mph. Other ships have arrived and dropped an anchor to slow their approach to the dock, too. Have pics of the H Lee White doing the same.

When I sailed back in the 70's for USS/GLF, it was fairly common to drop the pick, especially on most of the non-bowthruster vessels. Varying docks and weather generally constituted this procedure. I know my Dad would readily drop if he needed to manuever due to dock angles or weather related problems.

Captain Ray McGrath, in his book Great Lakes Stories, explains in detail how extensive he used his anchors for docking, undocking, etc. Very inventive ideas he thought of and used!

Captain Ziegman would drag an anchor when the Mauthe was sent to Marquette for a load of pellets. If I remember correctly, a couple of the Pittsburgh AA's also used the same technique but I don't remember where.

Luke is correct. There was a very stiff southerly wind while the ship was coming in and they dragged the anchor for that reason. After the ship was docked, when they tried to raise the anchor again, it became stuck on an object on the bottom. They tried pushing away from the dock, but that didn't work. They ended up having to back the ship up about 20 feet before the anchor came unstuck.

Thanks Luke. That makes sense. I should have thought of that.

Some boats have used an achor to help them make the turn and dock in Marquette. Probably due to the high winds and trying to make the south side of the dock.

In the boatnerd photos for may 2nd it shows the Lee A. Tregurtha coming into Marquette with the starboard anchor dragging. Is this done for a reason or is it accidental.