Thanks and a tip of the bosun’s cap to Mike Van Doren of Port Angeles, who asked a couple of excellent follow-up questions to the Jan. 22 column that discussed the various anchorages in Port Angeles Harbor that are used by the cargo ships and tankers.
Mike is curious about the depth of the harbor as well as the length and weight of the anchors used aboard ship.
I spoke with Carl Engstrom, a Puget Sound pilot, who said the entrance to the harbor as it is measured inland from the end of Ediz Hook is approximately 1.3 miles wide.
Measuring from that imaginary straight line to the western terminus of the harbor by the Nippon Paper Industries USA mill, it is approximately 2.3 miles.
Because the land mass surrounding the harbor is not sheer-sided, it is necessary to think of the harbor as a swale that slopes gently from the shoreline to the harbor’s muddy bottom.
Carl said the western portion of the harbor is the most shallow, with a depth that ranges from 18 to 20 fathoms (1 fathom equals 6 feet, so the depth would be 108 to 120 feet) and is the area where smaller ships with shallow drafts are anchored.
Larger vessels such as the Polar tankers, Alaska Tanker Co.’s fleet and container ships, are anchored toward the middle of the harbor eastward of a point established by an imaginary line stretching northward from the port’s terminals.
This is where the water’s depth increases to 25 fathoms — 150 feet — or greater.
An-chors hold ships in place by virtue of their mass, hooking into a harbor’s bottom or both. Depending upon the type and class of ship, anchors weigh anywhere from 6 to 14 tons.
On the night prior to my conversation with Carl, he was aboard a larger tanker.
The anchor on that vessel weighed 11 tons and was affixed to the vessel with 14 shots (1 shot equals 15 fathoms) of chain.
For those who think in feet: An anchor shot is 90 feet.
Carl said he was speaking with the captain, who told him that each link in the chain is a foot long and weighs 110 pounds.
Typically, each shot of the chain has a serial number that is stamped on the inner side of its end or detachable links.
Anchor chain is also color-coded and marked so that personnel tending the anchor will know exactly how much chain has been used.
Markings generally consist of turns of wire and stripes of white paint separating each shot of chain as follows:
■ At the 15-fathom mark, the detachable link is painted red, has one turn of wire wrapped around it, and the link on either side is painted white to denote one shot of chain.
■ At the 30-fathom mark, two links on each side of the detachable link are painted white, and the detachable link is wrapped with two turns of wire designating 2 shots of chain.
■ At 45 fathoms, the detachable link is painted blue and wrapped with three turns of wire. The three links on either side of it are painted white and marked as three shots of chain.
■ At 60 fathoms, the colors repeat themselves —starting over with red, and the marking process otherwise continues in like fashion for each successive shot of chain.
On most ships, all links of the next-to-last shot are painted yellow and all links of the last shot are painted red.
Painting the last two shots gives warning of the approach of the bitter end of the road and usually is a signal for personnel to clear the decks.
For the sake of illustration, let’s anchor the tanker that Carl was on in 27 fathoms (162 feet) of water in the eastern end of the harbor.
He said there will be roughly five times more chain in the water than the depth beneath the ship, and this is known as the scope.
Fiddling with my improving math skills, there will be 135 fathoms — or nine shots totaling 810 feet — of chain in the water.
These nine shots of chain weigh about 44.5 tons.
Couple that with the anchor that weighs 11 tons, and the mass in the water that is holding the tanker in place totals almost 56 tons.
Bear in mind that there are still roughly 5 shots of chain remaining in the chain locker that is belowdecks, and there are two compete sets of anchors and chain aboard ship.
I thank Carl for his help with this column and also give a nod to Steve Semler, also a Puget Sound pilot, for clarifying some questions about the color coding and marking of anchor chains.
Underwater repairs
The oil tanker Alaskan Navigator moored to the Port of Port Angeles’ Terminal 1 North on Jan. 28.
She will be dockside until the middle of next week as personnel from All-Sea Diving of North Vancouver, B.C., finish underwater repairs to the damaged hull.
The double-hull tanker was under way from Long Beach, Calif., to Cherry Point north of Bellingham when on Jan. 25 an alarm sounded off Newport, Ore., indicating an excessive amount of water in one or more of the ballast tanks.
The tanks were pumped off and the ship was diverted to Port Angeles for repairs. No oil spill was reported.
As it turns out, the ship had a crack in the hull near the bow that measured about 7 inches long by an inch or so wide.
From what I’ve been able to glean, the crack appears to be a puncture, which indicates that something hit the vessel while she was under way.
In addition to the divers, Washington Marine Repair, the topside repair company on the waterfront, has more than two dozen personnel working two shifts on the Alaskan Navigator to get the repairs completed and the vessel under way.
The Coast Guard and Alaska Tanker Co., the company that operates the fleet of Alaska Class double-hull crude oil tankers, are working together in an attempt to pinpoint the exact cause of the crack.
Out in the harbor
On Monday, Tesoro Petroleum bunkered British Oak, a 787-foot tanker that is flagged in the United Kingdom.
On Friday, Tesoro had its refueling barge alongside Hanjin Matsue, a Panamanian-flagged cargo ship that is 623 feet long with a 108-foot beam.
Then Saturday, Tesoro provided bunkers to Karen Maersk, a 600-foot petroleum products carrier that is flagged in Denmark.
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David G. Sellars is a Port Angeles resident and former Navy boatswain’s mate who enjoys boats and strolling the waterfronts.
Items involving boating, port activities and the North Olympic Peninsula waterfronts are always welcome.
Email dgsellars@
hotmail.com or phone him at 360-808-3202.
His column, On the Waterfront, appears every Sunday.