Fisherman’s Anchor & A Story

4/25/2025 I’m painting a fisherman’s anchor and chain that I plan on displaying in my front yard. As I’m painting it, I’m thinking back to the time onboard the USCGC Clover ☘️ WLB-292 when a couple guys had missed movement on a search and rescue call we went out on. We had a brand new captain on board, Lieutenant Commander Jay Creech. After our SAR call was completed, the skipper set out to test the navigational skills of his quartermasters and junior officiers. I believe we were in Chatham Straits, which is located in Southeast Alaska. Chatham Straits is twice as wide as Long Island sound and probably over 1000 feet deep at its greatest depth. There was a shelf, that came up to about 150-200 foot and using sextons and compass bearings he wanted to see if we could anchor on the shelf. A couple hours prior Warrant Boatswains Mate Mr. Steve Holman passed me in the passageway and said to me, “May, when the Special Sea Detail is set, report to the anchor detail!” Yes sir, Mr. Holman, I replied. And so the time came to set the special sea detail, and I went to the forecastle. My job was the easiest, to release a safety block that rested up against the anchor chain just before it exited the hauser pipe. There was a pelican hook, to release also which prevented the chain and the anchor from leaving the ship while underway. This was the job of my friend Louie Roderick. Another fella, was to release the brake band when the command was given to deploy the anchor. So as the quartermasters and the junior offices placed us above the shelf, the command was given to release the anchor. Never having seen an anchor on a ship being deployed before, I was a little taken back at the speed at which the anchor chain ran across the wildcat. Each link of chain was about 8 inches long and over an inch in thickness. Anchor chain is designed to be heavier than regular chain, as the weight of the chain helps to hold the anchor in place. At lightning speed it traveled across the wildcat as it sat into the pockets of the cat paw. I took a step backwards as I was standing between both the port and starboard hauser pipes. Small pieces of debris started to pellet us, and seaman Simpson, the brake man tried to slow the descent of the anchor, but unintentionally stopped it dead in its tracks. Mr. Holman, the Warrant Boatswains Mate in charge of the deck operation yelled at the brake man, “What the hell are you doing, open up the brake!” Yes sir Mr. Holman, seaman Simpson replied, and again the anchor chain proceeded at lightning speed. Mr. Holman continued looking down over the starboard rail as the anchor chain payed out of the hauser pipe, so as to gauge when she finally made contact with the bottom. Bigger pieces of debris started to pellet us and I took a second step backwards. Seaman Simpson tried to slowly close the band brake on the cylindrical drum to reduce the speed of descent, but once again lo and behold, the anchor came to an immediate stop a second time. Once again, Mr Holman yelled for the brake to be opened! Seaman Simpson released the band brake a third time, and the lightning speed anchor chain ran out of the chain locker and over the wildcat and out the hauser pipe. Then to everybody’s amazement, the bitter end of the anchor chain flew straight 25’ in to the air and whipped back-and-forth. I watched as the bitter end missed Louie Roderick’s face by 1 inch, as the anchor chain made its final exit. I was unsure of what exactly happened, that possibility the chain had broken. We had taken a knee in a huddle and I turned to Mr. Holman, and asked him what had happened. He turned to me and said, “I think we just let the chain run out of the chain locker!” Captain J Creech was on the bridge wing, and you could-hear him as clear as day. There wasn’t too many curse words that he left out! Well, when we finally got back to port, there were pallets of new chain and a new anchor on the pier. Chain is measured in shots, each shot is 90 feet. I think we put close to nine or 10 shots of chain into the chain locker. The second to last shot we painted yellow, and the last shot we painted red. The pieces of debris we were getting pelted with were pieces of rust. I forgot to mentioning, after we had lost the anchor the bouy boom was set over the portside, and a very large grappling hook was attached. We circled the shelf with the hope of catching a piece of the chain, but that never happened. We circled for over 24 hours, then the decision was made to call in commercial divers. It was then I realized, that we had lost something very valuable! The divers had made their way down, but were unable to locate the chain. They did report back that they seen a trail where it’s slid off the shelf. One last thing, just before Homer, Alaska is a town called Anchor Point. It was off Anchor Point Captain Cook lost his ketch anchor while trying to find the inside passage. That’s how Anchor Point got its name. He spent a couple weeks looking for it, I guess his was pretty valuable too! Well, I hope you enjoyed the video and the story of the lost anchor. Thanks for viewing.