Posted by Andrew Craig-Bennett on July 28, 2003 at 21:40:31 from 195.93.32.8 user ACB.
In Reply to: Re: We Didn't Mean To...Drag the anchor posted by Jon on July 28, 2003 at 15:59:48:
Some of us here (well, at least four of us!) sail regularly out of Harwich Harbour in boats of Goblin's size (well, members of the Nancy Blackett Trust regularly sail out of Harwich Harbour in the "Goblin" herself, of course!)
I would like to suggest that the Nancy Blackett Trust stage a re-enactment, by anchoring Nancy in the right spot on the Shelf at the right stage of the tide, using a Fisherman anchor and chain. (This will entail someone digging Nancy's Fisherman out of Robertson's sprat shed, because she no longer uses it day to day, using a CQR (invented in 1934) instead.
A careful perusal of the text will reveal the approximate times of High and Low Water, on the day in question (without consulting the book, I would say 08.30 and 15.00, suggesting, since HWF&C Harwich is 12.00, that we are dealing with a spring tide with a range of perhaps 3.6 metres).
I very much doubt if Jim used anything like as much as six times the depth; for a short stay three times would be quite adequate.
The point to establish is "At what scope of chain does the "Nancy Blackett" start to drag a Fisherman on the early ebb on Harwich Shelf?"
The experiment will probably have to be curtailed before arrival at the Beach End Buoy, owing to commercial traffic in the harbour using the deep water channel.
It should be pointed out that the deep water channel has been dredged a good deal deeper, since the 1930's, to accomodate modern container ships. The depth in the 1930's could be established by reference to the UK Hydrographic Office at Taunton, which has an unparallelled archive of charts.