How US Navy Drops MASSIVE Aircraft Carrier Anchor at Full Speed 

Just in case the casual viewer is not aware of this, the flight deck of an aircraft carrier is one of the most dangerous places in the world. For example the arresting cable can break and if you are not in a safe location it can cut you in half when it snaps back. The flight deck crew are highly trained and deserve tremendous respect. We tend to think of the pilots as heros and I am not saying they aren't. But the flight deck crew are remarkable men and women too.

I served on two aircraft carriers. Whenever the anchors were deployed or retrieved, NO ONE was allowed to be in the windlass room! The links weighed 350 lbs. each and were each composed of three pieces. Imagine the results if one of them broke under tension and people were in the room!

'Typically made of heavy metal' [calm dentist office music continues]

I can't even imagine how you can stop such a heavy chain moving so fast downward with so much inertia in so little time. Amazing.

The anchor itself on large ships provides very little to none of the actual holding power when it's lowered into the water. The weight of the anchor is really just there to help pull out the chain. The weight of the chain itself stretched out along the sea floor is what actually holds the ship.

We don't talk about large weights in pounds... ONLY TONNES ..

Fun fact. The one holding the ship is not actually the anchor, but the weight of the chain multiplied by the distance from center of chain to ship. This is why ships can stop even if they are above mud seabed where anchor wont clog into anything

From a different perspective ships anchors are the bane of my life working as a global communications engineer. They regularly drag across submarine floor breaking fibre cables, disrupting Communications and Internet across the world and can sometimes take weeks to fix using specialist cable repair ships.

This video was really interesting and informative! Speaking from my perspective as a US Navy submarine veteran, the bottom of the anchor on a submarine is designed in such a way that when the anchor is stored, the bottom of it conforms to the vessel's round bottom. There's holes in the bottom of the submarine that are specifically designed for the anchor's flukes, and the chain is stored in a bin in one of the main ballast tanks. When the anchor is stored in place, if you were to look at the bottom of the submarine when it's in drydock, unless you knew what you were looking for, it would be difficult to spot the anchor.

Having built US Navy ships my entire life, it’s quite exciting for the brake band on the winless to catch on fire during free fall operation. This is due to hydraulic oil leaks in the system. An unavoidable consequence on the older anchor systems. I’ve been doing this 30 something years.

at the end of each use, seamen give the chain a slap and utter: "this baby ain't going nowhere."

The room with the windlass is called the forecastle. My Marine son told me that the forecastle is a special part of the ship where promotions are sometimes awarded. I got to go on a "Tiger Cruise" with my son aboard the USS America. It was a major highlight of my 74 years.

The hazards of this work looks incredible and pretty daunting from an outsiders perspective. Kudos and appreciation to all involved.

I was in the US Navy. Thought I missed it the first time through, so I had to watch this a second time. The smart sounding lady did not answer the reason I clicked the video. I still don't know how an aircraft carrier drops it's anchor at full speed. That would have been something to see. Thanks anyhow. Love watching big ships in action.

TV is so good at keeping You to listen the same infos over and over during this 11 minutes and You still feel excitement You learning something new :D

I’m here, not because I’m interested, but because I’ve gone down the RU-vid rabbit hole.

It's not the anchor that holds the ship, it's the weight of the chain on the sea floor that does. The anchor is there to keep the chain in place.

Great video. Technical point. The purpose of the anchor is to hold the chain on the bottom. When a ship pays out its anchor chain, the bulk of the chain is on the bottom, and a small part angles upwards through the hawsepipe and onto the forecastle and is "clipped" in place by the pelican hook that is connected to a strong padeye on the deck. That curve is called "catenary" and serves as a "spring" to absorb the strain wind and seas would exert on the ship, as more chain is lifted off the bottom. When the seas calm, that chain that was lifted off the bottom eases back onto the seabed. The anchor plays a critical part, but it is the accumulated friction of the chain on the bottom combined with the anchor that holds the ship at its anchorage.

Another interesting fact about why arresting gear is needed is because the planes have to land at full power to ensure that if anything goes wrong the plane will have enough speed to take off again on the other end of the ship. Also I’ve seen video of an arresting gear cable snapping and taking some of the flight deck personnel’s legs off. A flight deck is by far one of the most dangerous places to work.

Such a task can't be done without specialized engineering supervision and alert personnel teams,outstanding work 👍

I can't even come close to imagine the constant maintenance on an aircraft carrier but I envision the "simple" maintenance on my truck and multiply that by a million just to get close to imagine what needs to be done to keep the ship in tip-top condition and, I think, that's not even close because there are so many departments with their own maintenance.

Thanx for the memories. Spent 3 years onboard the USS Saratoga (CV60) in the 80's. Those were the days!!

Just had my first experience with a ground-based arresting cable last week. The commercial plane I was on ran over the cable just before takeoff from the VPS (Valparaiso, FL) airport. The runway is shared by Eglin AFB.

I’m very confused how we went from Anchors to stopping aircraft… I mean I can see the connections but…

Somehow I missed them dropping the anchor while going full speed?

America,, what an amazing country. The engineering prowess & logistics acumen is mind-blowing

Amazing how this video about aircraft arresting systems briefly gave mention of an anchor and never explained "How US Navy Drops MASSIVE Aircraft Carrier Anchor at Full Speed".

3:25 I like how my man is testing the anchor and representing his clique at the same time.

i was aboard the USS America on a "Tiger Cruise" with my Marine Son. I was allowed to wander all over the ship at will, and I returned to the forecastle many times because of ceremonial significance of the forecastle. My son explained that often, promotion ceremonies are held there. For the rest of my life I will be grateful to the Navy for giving me the opportunity to live life aboard an aircraft carrier with my son. The food was damn good too! Happy to see that Navy beat Army today!!

It's incredible how much effort has to be put into maintaining a seemingly unimportant part like an anchor chain.

Cool, is rare or distorted a lot when viewing that many times! This gives a brief glimpse of how DANGEROUS handling that chain could be,it misses in the fact,that is just ONE :) I slept right under the 3 wire on 2 cruises & worked full ops for days on end but just being around the systems around the forecastle had me hugging the bulkhead :) Thanks to my curious bosses a Lt. and a master chief we got to see them install the main chains and anchors(systems) in dry dock on the U.S.S America & Indy Also saw them re-install the engines and propellers on the America, have always regretted not finding a way into the engine rooms during full ops :( Met the crew testing or "pinging" those links on the dock of the Indy it wasn't glamorous lol ,we were popular ,we had permission to drive a work van onto the dock so we could bring real food AND BEER :) true Navy way a squadron hat and some beer will get you access to many places :) Have done all manner of crazy dangerous jobs and that was the best for about a dollar and hr :) Side note I liked going in the forecastle on a cruise because it is CLEAN :) everywhere I lived and worked was soaked in j.p.5 :)Be safe and a heads up to anyone who has ever worked on one these boats :) Peace. Rick

1:57 didn’t expect to see lil nas X there😂

What does arresting gear have to do with anchors?

11:44 The US Navy also enlists common arachnids to build emergency web systems which act as a final line of defense

Chain gang that's the sound of the men working on the chain

“Made of heavy metal” gosh I never would have guessed that!

It isn't only the anchor, "hooked" to the sea bed that keeps the ship from moving, but a great length of chain as well, who's weight, stretched along the bottom of the sea providing slack to stop the boat from drifting away.

This was interesting. My squadron berthing compartment on CVAN-65 USS Enterprise was just aft of the fo'c'sle, the compartment where you see the chains in this video. It was kind of a nice place to hang out unless the Bos'n's were doing maintenance or anchor drops. We were caught in a typhoon in the South China Sea and the waves were so high that water was entering the anchor chain holes (sorry, I forget the nautical term for these, I was an airedale) and flooding into our berthing compartment.

It’s actually not the anchor the holds the ship in place; it’s the weight of the length of chain extended on the sea floor that does the job.

The music in the background on an aircraft carrier: "The hills are alive with the sound of brrrrrrrrt"

I’d love to witness that in person (from afar lol), I reckon it would be a massive thrill to see so much weight and power moving at that speed, I wonder if everyone on the ship feels it under the feet as it happens? Fascinating

Not "wind-lass" it is pronounced "WIND less".

Kudos and appreciation to all involved.

6:33 you know the nerd who designed those blast shields felt special

"Is [this chain’s] pattern strange to you? Or would you know the weight and length of the strong coil you bear yourself? It was as heavy and as long as this seven Christmas Eves ago. You have labored in it since. It is a ponderous chain” -Jacob Marley.

Fun facts about the BAK-12: It uses a B-52 brake to slow the aircraft catching the cable. There are 2 brake/engine combos, one on each side of the runway. The reason you saw a firefighter running the BAK-12 is because during an emergency, we can’t always get the CE crews out in time to reset the cable. We (base fire dept.) trained at least once per quarter on resetting the cable. It’s a lot of coordination between the two crews to pull the cable back in place. But wait! There’s more! There was a second arresting system that used webbing stretched across the runway called the BAK-11. That was for large frame aircraft to catch. What did this use to slow and stop aircraft? Anchor chain!

‘Waayyy thee anchor’ ‘How much does it weigh?’ ‘I don’t know, I forgot.’

incredible when the officer dropped the anchor. how the anchor falls slowly into the water. a beauty

The system they start to show at 10:30 is actually called M31 MCEAGS (Marine Corps Expeditionary Arresting Gear System). It's a self contained mobile arresting gear system the Marine Corps can install pretty much anywhere.

Excellent video about the anchor chains and arresting systems. I was a bit disappointed that there was no mention of the motors that retrieve the fifteen ton anchor chains.

i love it when we still use good ol tech that hasnt changed much. after 100s of years nothing beats a huge hunk of metal on a chain.

former Aviation Machinists Mate from the navy here. i was on a deployment on the Eisenhower back in 2020, and it baffles me how something so massive could move so terrifyingly fast. keeping your head on a swivel transfers over to the civilian world too

Tailhooks on land based fighters are nothing new, we had them on the McDonnell-Douglas CF-101 Voodoo that was built in the 1950s, hook was on a spring steel arm like a big leaf spring in your truck and had to manually set back into place. In fact on the TV show My Three Sons, the character played by Fred McMurray, Steve Douglas, was a McDonnell-Douglas Engineer attached to an Air Base in California where there was a F-101 Voodoo wing.

It's the weight of the chain that holds the ship in place NOT the anchor! The anchor just provides "grip" on the seabed to keep the chain from moving.

Incredible respect to anyone serving in any branch of our military. Thanks

Those anchor rooms look amazingly clean and decorated. I was in the army and we took pride in certain areas and decorated them similar. Can anyone in the navy confirm ? Also these areas were only open to certain people of an MOS.

No mention of showing the anchor being dropped at "full-speed". What does arresting Lines and the airforce have to do with anchors. You should have tried a little harder to present the anchoring system of a ship. Two unrelated stories presented together. Do better next time. Your welcome Bob

I like the cool high tech car-tire component of the Air Force's BAK-12 system.

"This is usually done via a process simply known as a 'manual check' " LOL

Me just chuckling while remembering all of my moms Navy stories, this being one of them.

The purpose of the anchor is to pull out the chain, the chain is pulled out along the sea floor via the ship backing down and a swing arch (the point of anchor drop to a specified length: dependent on the depth of the anchor spot) is plotted. That's why the anchor drop spot is Not where the anchorage spot is designated. The weight of the chain on the sea floor is what holds the ship in place.

Love and respect to those who serve in all areas of these ships and in our military

It's crazy to me how many different and massive components and areas of the ship it takes to operate a carrier. Nevermind a small city worth of people.

This is cool, I was in a squadron on USS Saratoga and then the USS Enterprise.. even though I've been in this space at the forecastle many times I never got to see the anchor actually being dropped.

The birthing compartment my division was assigned aboard the USS Coronado (LPD-11) was where the anchor shaft was located. Being in the rack when the anchor was dropped was like having an earthquake.

IN MY VIEW I did not know your channal existed.Your informative videos are exciting to watch. I subscribed.

its terrifying how much energy and mass is being handled by those chains.

The anchor chain is not attached to the ship, it is held in in the chain locker by gravity. Only the catspans and drums that pull up or lower the chain connect it to the ship. The chain locker is a void, or space not intended for human occupation, and the chain just piles up in it. It is normally never entered by the crew.

My departure from a US carrier was delayed when the anchor got away from the crew and anchor and all the chain went to the bottom (The end of the chain is not connected to anything.) Each link in my carrier's anchor chain was 360 pounds and each anchor weighed 30 tons. It always amazed me that the chains were pulled taut on the forecastle.

Thanks to all that are serving and have served.

Yea, all I see is Reactor doing a hell of a job. We supply EVERYTHING on the ship.

There is a neat video here on YT showing a navy ship losing it's anchor & chain during a training exercise. A couple of very brief clips from the video were shown in this video. The wildcat could not stop the rapidly free-running chain, & the whole length of the chain ended up on the sea bottom. There was so much rust dust kicked up by the chain that you could barely see. Check it out.

Fun fact, it is the weight of the chain that keeps a ship in place not the anchor itself.

In the Navy we like to call this, "Busy work" ;)

UNA DE LAS OBRAS DE INGENIERÍA MÁS COMPLEJAS QUE EL HOMBRE A CREADO.

If you guys want your very own warship anchor go look in the anchorages outside Annapolis. When I was in the navy we were told basically that you're 100% going to loose your anchor because of the soil down at the bottom. There's probably hundreds.

I served in the navy from 84-88. Ad3 on the forrestal. Don’t think I miss it really but the memories are real and some were pretty good. I’d recommend it to anyone to serve their country.

Watched this in person from the chain locker on the USS -NASSAU LHA-4 it's incredibly loud and the whole compartment filled with smoke, it was awsome.

Tan interesante como: "Como un Marine MEA por la borda".

Anchor drops on a Navy ship is a very intense event with no less than 6 people for their larger sized ships. Then i went on a luxury cruise ship which was bigger than an AS or AD, and the anchor drop had only 3 people and they were casually chatting while the anchor was dropping. Go Navy!

Okay, Air Force, that cobweb at 11:45 is UNSAT! I never saw one of those aboard ship.

This was fun and nostalgic to watch. I was on the USS Theodore Roosevelt cvn-71. I operated and lead catapults 3 and 4 at various times of my sea-duty. I later went to shore-duty in PAX River MD, where I also got to operate in the test catapult and arresting gear. The gear engine and damper systems are very similar to what is on board the ship. I'm no stranger to maintaining large and heavy equipment and seeing those sailors working on the anchor systems; that's hard work for sure. Even the airman have hard work running drills/operations and maintaining those air-force variants of the arresting system. Thank you.

Each chain weighs 246,000 pounds for a 60,000 pound anchor. There are 2 of these. They are what actually holds the ship in place while at 'anchor'.

Very interesting... most people have no idea how much work goes into these projects and functions.

This was such a neat vid ty for posting it

You would think they would drag it through some kind of oil to keep it from rusting. Maybe they paint it every year or something

imagine how much power they could recover with a kinetic charging system

Pretty dangerous job for the workers in that anchor room. I am sure any accidental physical contact with that metal beast is going to shred anyone.

I was on sea &anchor detail on CV~67 USS John F Kennedy. On starboard forward catwalk. When I hear a change in the sound of anchor running out, faster and faster. Call comes over sound power headset : clear the catwalk runaway anchor. I barely stepped inside when the bitter end whipped out and took off catwalk.

So it's actually the weight of the chain connected to the anchor that keeps the ship in place, not the hook in the seafloor.

I was the captain of three of the Navy's largest battleships during WWII, at the same time, I personally attended all anchor droppings because I felt that it was my duty, being the most important part of a ship's operations, and being the most important man in the Navy, I say this because I read the first 10 comments, and you should thank me for my service, whether I served or not, because I can spell anchor and Navy, having watched others do it.

if the woman narrating these videos is also producing them - she's absolutely brilliant at what she's doing. the specifics of the technology, and an eye for the beauty of the thing she's describing. very accurate.

I like how the actors were painted over... excellent call friends❤️

Very interesting video! Thanks for sharing my friend!

I'd love to have about 400ft of that Aircraft Carriers anchor chain to use as a fence around my house. lol. That would be awesome!

Love and respect for the troops

Very true crazy choreograph, chaos, dangerous lethal adrenaline rush loved it for years

Sempre tive curiosidade em saber o que fazem se a âncora prender pra valer e não soltar de jeito nenhum

I doubt anchors usually are made of heavy metals (mercury (Hg), cadmium (Cd), arsenic (As), chromium (Cr), thallium (Tl), and lead (Pb)) as stated in this video. Usually its just a steel alloy.

The weight of the anchor chain, not the anchor itself.