Anchors Away

Big Anchor Project

Portsmouth is steeped in maritime history. From earliest times it has been used by mariners. It’s natural harbour offering a safe sanctuary and a staging point for trade routes and military campaigns.

We have recorded and know a lot about the various ships that have visited The Solent and surrounding areas but little is known about a vital piece of equipment carried by all ships - its anchor.

The Big Anchor project is going to change all that.

The Nautical Archaeology Society, based at Fort Cumberland, Portsmouth, is setting up a database that will record anchors, not just from our local area but from across the globe.  The NAS are set to head up an international project of significant historical importance.

“The anchor is an iconic symbol of our maritime history, past, present and future,” advises Mark Beattie-Edwards, Programme Director at the NAS, “anchors are not just found under the sea. They can be found in all coastal towns, used as garden ornaments, set up as memorials or simply rotting away in forgotten corners. Others can be found in museums but have never been recorded in their own right.”

Ever since man has took to the sea he has made anchors.  First from stone and then from metal. The changes in design demonstrating changes in technical advancement through the centuries. The distribution of these anchors can show old trade routes or mark the progress of exploration.  All this information is lying around us.

For more than 4000 years the anchor has been every mariner’s vital piece of safety equipment.  It is often the last remaining visible symbol of an incident at sea - whether cut loose in an emergency or marking the last remaining resting place of a shipwreck.  Yet little is known of their abundance, distribution, age or origin.

Mark advises, “this is something that everyone can help with from children to adults.  We are looking for anyone and everyone to help create the database by recording any anchors they might know and sending us the information along with any digital photos of the finds.”

The project will have its own website, www.biganchorproject.com in addition the the general information available on the NAS’s own website, www.nauticalarchaeologysociety.org

Volunteers and interested parties will be able to go to the project website and download recording forms and details of what to look for.  These forms can then be posted or sent back to the NAS to help with Phase 1 of the project, which will consist of collecting written records and collating these ready to share across the Internet.

One of the supporters of the project is Parcs Canada who first started recording anchor finds in Canada nearly 5 years ago.  Parcs Canada are helping with the NAS project to make this a truly global database and are responsible for protecting Canada’s cultural heritage.

Due to the projects accessibility to all, it has received funding of over £5000 from the Lottery Heritage Fund through the Awards For All Programme that will allow the setting up of phase 1.  This has been supported and backed by Dorset County Council, the Dorset Coast Forum, Poole Museum and the Weymouth Lunar Society in the UK.  The international support also extends to the USA through the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration as well as Parcs Canada.

Phase 2 will really see the project go international when all the collated information will become available via the Internet.  This will also allow the recording and posting of finds directly via the web also.  This phase is planned for March 2009.

The NAS launched the project at their annual conference which was held at Action Stations, Portsmouth Historic Dockyard, last November and hope to increase the rates of recording as time progresses.

The historic dockyard in Portsmouth already has a vast anchor collection of all types. 

The NAS are urging everyone to report any anchors they might know of and are challenging the diving community to help with underwater surveys and to report underwater finds, wherever they might be diving.

To find out more about the project or to reserve a place on the free training sessions (admission might be chargeable to enter the dockyard) please contact Mark Beattie-Edwards at the NAS via email at mark@nauticalarchaeologysociety.org