That the figure of this useful instrument may be more clearly understood, let us suppose a long massy beam of iron erected perpendicularly, Plate I. fig. 2. _b c_; at the lower end of which are two arms, _d_ _e_, of equal thickness with the beam (usually called the shank) only that they taper towards the points, which are elevated above the horizontal plane at an angle of thirty degrees; or inclined to the shank at an angle of sixty degrees: on the upper part of each arm (in this position) is a fluke, or thick plate of iron, _g h_, commonly shaped like an isosceles triangle, whose base reaches inwards to the middle of the arm. On the upper-end of the shank is fixed the stock transversely with the flukes: the stock is a long beam of oak, _f_, in two parts, strongly bolted, and hooped together with iron rings. See also fig. 3. Close above the stock is the ring, _a_, to which the cable is fastened, or _bent_: the ring is curiously covered with a number of pieces of short rope, which are twisted about it so as to form a very thick texture or covering, called the puddening, and used to preserve the cable from being fretted or chafed by the iron. Every ship has, or ought to have, three principal anchors, with a cable to each, viz. the sheet, _maitresse-ancre_, (which is the _anchora sacra_ of the antients) the best bower, _second ancre_, and small bower, _ancre d’ affourche_, so called from their usual situation on the ship’s bows. There are besides smaller anchors, for removing a ship from place to place in a harbour or river, where there may not be room or wind for sailing; these are the stream-anchor, _ancre de touei_; the kedge and grappling, _grapin_; this last, however, is chiefly designed for boats. _To drag the_ ANCHORS, _chasser sur ses ancres_, implies the effort of making the anchor _come home_, when the violence of the wind, &c. strains the cable so as to tear it up from the bed into which it had sunk, and drag it along the ground; as already explained. _Foul_-ANCHOR: it is so called when it either hooks some other anchor, wreck, or cable, under the surface of the water; or when, by the wind suddenly abating, the ship slackens her strain, and straying round the bed of her anchor, entangles her slack cable about the upper fluke of it, and easily draws it out of its place, as soon as she begins to ride with a strain. To prevent this, it is usual, as she approaches the anchor, in light winds, to draw the slack cable into the ship as fast as possible. _To_ ANCHOR, _ancrer_, _mouiller_, _&c._ is to let go the anchor, and to let the ship ride thereby. _The_ ANCHOR _is a cock-bill_, _ancre est àla vielle_, implies that the shank-painter, or rope by which the flukes were hung to the ship’s bow, being cast off, the flukes drop down perpendicularly; whilst the anchor is suspended at the cat-head by its stopper, ready to be sunk from the bow at a moment’s warning.