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New Well, that's just stupid.
Lost anchor and chain. The bitter end is supposed to be secured.
New Now *that* would be stupid.
Imagine what would happen when several dozen tons of steel dropping at terminal velocity reaches the end. You'd have a lost chain *and* a busted winch.
--

Drew
New Better tell that to the Navy.
As told by an old friend of mine, who was in charge of the bow AA gun tubs on a heavy cruiser.

The captain checked and was told there were no Japanese ships anywhere near. They anchored to blow the tubes on one of their boilers. The other boilers were kept at full pressure just in case.

A Japanese cruiser hove into sight. Ray heard the captain on page, "Let go the bitter end!".

Ray yelled to his gun crews, "Grab as much ammunition as you can carry, and run aft as fast as you can go!"

The ship backed off the chain at full power. The whipping chain wiped the deck clean of anything forward of the winches.

Of course, the captain of a heavy cruiser would probably check the depth before dropping anchor.

That's the real "stupid" of that video.
New I think that agrees with my point
You said the chain should have been attached. I said that would take the winch with it. Your story sure sounds like the chain wasn't attached. No?
--

Drew
New Not so.
The command was, "Let go the bitter end". That means unshackle it from the ship.

The bitter end is secured to a strong structure in the chain locker, not to the winch.
New I thought it just meant to let it unwind
That's got to be one hell of a mechanism, as I assume it's only used in emergencies and needs to be a quick-release.
--

Drew
New Actually, it's probably not strong enough . . .
. . to stop a free falling anchor, it'd be there to stop a drifting ship from pulling off its chain.

An anchor should never be dropped unless you know how deep the water is. This you can get from your charts.
New You ever hear of a sea anchor? No bottom required
"Science is the belief in the ignorance of the experts" – Richard Feynman
New Re: You ever hear of a sea anchor? No bottom required
Yes, but that just keeps the wind from blowing you away - the sea anchor pulls you in whatever direction the water is flowing. If the water is heading for the rocks, you'd better have good danforth on a chain.
New I didn't listen to the video, but read the comments.
One of them said that even if the chain were secured at the end, would can take the attachment with it (or break) if it falls.

F = ma

and all that.

There's just too much mass going too fast if something goes wrong. It's better to let it go and try to retrieve it later.

Is that always the case? Dunno. But it made sense to me.

More on reddit - https://www.reddit.com/r/nononono/comments/1f7dxk/us_navy_ship_loses_anchor_and_chain_some/

Cheers,
Scott.
New Damn you
First comment linked to this.

BTW at the end of that video it shows total weight of anchor and chain lost was 104 tons. Holy shit.
--

Drew
Expand Edited by drook Aug. 24, 2018, 09:33:39 AM EDT
New Hehe. :-)
New It is the impulse that kills ya
i.e. the sudden stop at the end tends to send "a" towards infinity.
New A momentum-ous event, to say the least.
(Believe my first demo of how that works), as a tyke was ~~
"Ya gots a hammer and a nail. You don't place the hammer over nail-head and push". Do you?
     Who knew dropping anchor could be interesting? - (drook) - (16)
         Excellent. Thanks! -NT - (mmoffitt)
         Friction is amazing! -NT - (a6l6e6x)
         Well, that's just stupid. - (Andrew Grygus) - (13)
             Now *that* would be stupid. - (drook) - (7)
                 Better tell that to the Navy. - (Andrew Grygus) - (6)
                     I think that agrees with my point - (drook) - (5)
                         Not so. - (Andrew Grygus) - (4)
                             I thought it just meant to let it unwind - (drook) - (3)
                                 Actually, it's probably not strong enough . . . - (Andrew Grygus) - (2)
                                     You ever hear of a sea anchor? No bottom required -NT - (boxley) - (1)
                                         Re: You ever hear of a sea anchor? No bottom required - (Andrew Grygus)
             I didn't listen to the video, but read the comments. - (Another Scott) - (4)
                 Damn you - (drook) - (1)
                     Hehe. :-) -NT - (Another Scott)
                 It is the impulse that kills ya - (scoenye) - (1)
                     A momentum-ous event, to say the least. - (Ashton)

Thank you for making a simple LRPD very happy.
98 ms