4 Categories of Anchors - Stock Anchors

There are many kinds of anchors, which are roughly divided into four types: stock anchor, stockless anchor, HHP anchor and special anchor, and more than ten kinds of anchors.

An anchor with a cross bar is a stock anchor. The characteristic of this kind of anchor is that stock  anchor claw is inserted into the soil, and when the anchor is dragged on the sea floor, the cross bar can prevent the anchor claw from tipping over and play a stable role. There are Admiralty anchor, Trotman anchor, Single fluke anchor and Japan stock anchor.

Admiralty Anchor: This type, with its two flukes and its stock at right angles, remained the basic anchor for many centuries. It is known as a stock anchor in the United States and as a fisherman’s anchor in the United Kingdom. This kind of anchor has a large grip and can firmly grasp all kinds of soil, but it is inconvenient to rewind and put, and it is not used as the main anchor on modern large ships, but only on sailing ships and small inland river boats.

Trotman Anchor: A admiralty anchor with a rotatable jaw. In use, when one claw is in the ground, the other claw can be turned to the anchor handle and attached. This kind of anchor is more convenient to use than the admiralty anchor, but the holding force is smaller than the admiralty anchor, and only one bolt is used to connect the anchor handle, and the safety is poor. Therefore, it can only be used in sailing ships and inland boats, and the anchor weight is generally not more than one ton.

Single Fluke Anchor: Similar to admiralty anchor, with only one fluke, but larger in size. This type of anchor has more claw force than admiralty anchor. Positioning anchors for a variety of engineering ships, dredgers commonly use this anchor to ensure that the ship does not move during dredging operations.

Japan Stock Anchor: It is a kind of double-clawed anchor used on Japanese fishing boats, and the cross bar is fixed under the anchor crown, which not only maintains the advantages of large grip, but also is convenient to collect.