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[itwasTuesday]

Hopefully they were prepared and brought

.

 

[adj_noun]

Ohhhhhh, an ANCHOR anchor.

Here I was thinking news.

I was trying to think of what kind of weird setup they were using for that one, heh.

 

[Aztechnology]

So who or what exactly was the weak link here?

Assuming drillbit is a person's title for a certain operation. Or is it that wheel? I'm lost.

 

[Kaiken]

Deep ass water yikes

After a certain chain length, gravity takes over.

 

[80s Bad Guy]

Hopefully they were prepared and brought

.

OK, I lol'ed.

 

[SodiumBenzoate]

Saw it on digg

 

[Freeza Under The Shower]

What does Drillbit mean in this context?

yeah, I'm lost on that one too. Everybody is now thinking about it being on the end, but I think it's referring to the handle that controls the speed of the chain's unwinding.

considering that you can actually drill stuff from a boat (and how!), I was very confused too. I feel the OP really should have explained what a technical term in the title means or just drop it.

Either way it's anchored now. Just not to the surface. Yonk!

 

[psylah]

Here is a lost anchor, complete with a numbering of how many fathoms of chain are being lost.

Also, when it hits the end, it snaps around the deck like a whip. Good thing no one was around.

https://youtu.be/b7pRfix_sNg?t=4m24s

 

[Mesoian]

I guess this happens a lot...

 

[OnkelC]

Yeah, the length of the chain surprised me too. Can we assume the see floor they were over was deeper than the chain was long?

No, the weight of the chain itself will just make it sink and pile up on the sea floor, even in shallow waters.

 

[Prez]

I was expecting Drillbit to be another one of Palin's kids.

 

[Freeza Under The Shower]

I guess this happens a lot...

this one didn't snap clean off though. it does show this 'drill bit' thing a bit clearer though, assuming that valve lifts it away from holding down the chain. Also, why on Earth is this a manual process?

edit: the main reason (afaik) it's so long is because it takes a good distance before the anchor becomes 'effective' in decreasing the drift radius from the position of the anchor(s) while usually using multiple, since a big boat will just plough the anchor through the ocean floor if it's just one. Current alone will do that just fine, which is without surface winds and so on. Those ships kind of don't brake for anybody.

 

[Scirrocco]

Here is a lost anchor, complete with a numbering of how many fathoms of chain are being lost.

Also, when it hits the end, it snaps around the deck like a whip. Good thing no one was around.

https://youtu.be/b7pRfix_sNg?t=4m24s

Why are they trying to drop anchor when the sea floor was clearly deeper then the length of the anchor?

 

[Nikodemos]

Also, why on Earth is this a manual process?

Faster/cheaper that way. Plus many ships have to regularly practice (drill) dropping the anchor in complete loss of electrics situations.

Why are they trying to drop anchor when the sea floor was clearly deeper then the length of the anchor?

It's not. The anchor chain coils up and drags the rest off the capstan due to inertia (we're talking 100-odd tonnes of chain here) once it has built up speed.

 

[kamakazi5]

The fact that people stayed around that thing for so long shows how people get killed in these types of accidents. In the heat of the moment I get that you hope you can correct a situation but still. Better to lose some equipment than a worker.