A large ship's anchor, salvaged from the SS COLONIAN (NPRN 273149) which was wrecked on the North Bishops in 1917, has been set up at the side of the road on the way into St Davids. The anchor was recovered during the course of salvage work on the wreck site by Dai Chant during the 1980s.
The anchor is a Trotman type anchor, characterised by the shank and the arms being manufactured as separate parts, before being fitted together with the crown of the arms slotting into the lower end of the shank, and held in place with a pin. This allowed the arms and flukes of the anchor to pivot, and in doing so gain greater purchase and bite into the seabed.
The anchor is 2.98m in length along its shank, and 1.08m from fluke-tip to fluke-tip. The arms are curved, and rectangular in cross-section; 100mm wide and 200mm deep at the crown, tapering to 80mm wide and 170mm deep at the fluke. The flukes are 0.65m in length and 0.25m width at their lower end. They have flat palms and a rounded tip, and a square extension flange (250mm by 250mm by 40mm) at their lower end carries a hole, 60mm in diameter.
The crescent-shaped crown of the anchor fits into a rectangular slot, 0.4m long at the lower end of the shank. The sides of the lower shank are flared around the slot to accommodate the width of the, and have rounded ends 0.2m in diameter. A large pin, c. 50mm diameter, runs through the shank ends and the crown to fasten the two parts together. A second pin, 35mm in diameter, protrudes from either top and bottom of the shank 0.5m from its lower end and would have been the attachment point for a pair of 'gravity shackles', but which are now absent.
The shank is rectangular in section; 180mm (in line with the arms) x 120mm (in line with the stock) at its thickest point. The upper 0.54m is fiddle-shaped to accomodate a pair of holes for the stock, and a large attachment shackle. The stock is 2.76m long, and set at right-angles to the arms. It is round in section, 140mm diameter at the shank, tapering to 90mm at the ends, which are rounded and 130mm in diameter. The attachment shackle is a bow type, 0.58m long, and 0.44m at its widest point. The bow is 75mm in diameter, and the shackle ears are 160mm wide.
The anchor was recorded by the RCAHMW on 22/01/2025 with a photogrammetry survey (links below).
Sources Include:
RCAHMW Photogrammetry Survey, DS2025_124_PGS, 22/01/2025. View here: https://skfb.ly/ptVtH
Royal Museums Greenwich, Trotman Anchor Model, ID SLR1930 https://www.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/rmgc-object-67889
J. Whitewright, RCAHMW, January 2025.