Historical information

This Trotman’s pattern stock anchor is the southernmost anchor displayed in Flagstaff Hill’s Anchor Graveyard. Patented by John Trotman in 1852, this robust design was used on merchant ships and became known for its practical efficiency.

Around midday on 15 April 2001, in Lady Bay, Warrnambool, Birdon Dredging crews raised this anchor from the seabed. Company spokesperson Steve Walker explained that the team was hired to dredge the harbour and discovered the anchor, still attached to its long chain, when the chain became tangled in the cutter blade of their dredging equipment. Once the anchor had been lifted onto the Breakwater, a front-end loader moved it onto a truck for delivery to Flagstaff Hill Maritime Museum and Village. Howard Nichol, the Museum Manager at the time, estimated that the anchor could be up to 130 years old. Former Museum Manager and diver Peter Ronald later identified it as a Trotman’s type, like those used on several major wrecks in the region.

According to Nichol, museum staff believed this anchor may have been one of a pair used to secure a mooring designed to catch drifting vessels and prevent ships from washing onto the sandbar or drifting out to sea in rough weather. This mooring line appears as a dotted line on a 1890 chart of Lady Bay approved by Lieutenant Stanley of the British Admiralty. The anchor’s location matches a point marked on that chart, and the length of its chain supports the theory. Nichol noted that the chart is a detailed survey of the bay, showing two anchors with buoys at either end, with about one hundred yards of chain stretched between them. Before the building of the Breakwater, the bay was especially treacherous, so ships would anchor there and use the chain as a safeguard.

About Trotman’s Anchors
In the mid-19th century, the Admiralty sought an anchor design with greater holding power. To assess the strengths of the leading designs, it appointed the Committee of 1852 on Anchors. Among the anchors reviewed, the Trotman’s pattern anchor received the highest rating.

The Trotman’s anchor resembles the Admiralty pattern but includes pivoting arms that move as the anchor settles. As it takes hold, the upper fluke folds back against the shank, allowing the anchor to sit lower and reducing the risk of the chain, cable, or rope becoming tangled. A fitting at the top of the shank also allows the chain to be quickly released if necessary.

Significance

This Trotman’s anchor is significant as a part of the maritime history of the Port of Warrnambool regardless of whether it belonged to one of the 29 ships that were stranded or wrecked in Lady Bay.
The anchor is connected to the many attempts to maintain Warrnambool as a safe and manageable port, including the various plans for the construction of the Breakwater.

Physical description

Anchor: an iron Trotman’s pattern style with a rectangular-section shank that is wider in the middle and has a base that extends on two opposite sides in a ‘fork prong’ manner. A crescent-shaped, double-ended arm is fitted into the base of the shank with a bolt, enabling it to pivot. Each arm has a fluke in the shape of an upward palm with an attached metal plate that forms a horn at the back of the palm. A long, round-section pipe is fitted to the top of the shank at 90 degrees to the arms; one side has an elbow bend parallel to the arms, and both ends have an attached metal sphere. The pivoting ring at the top of the shank can be lifted for a quick release of the chain.