Name: 新聞主播的運作方式跟你想的不一樣！ (Anchors Don't Work The Way You Think)
Uploaded: 2026-02-15T22:07:06.000Z
Duration: 4 min 55 s

A modern container ship can weigh over 200,000 tons.

一艘現代的貨櫃輪，重量可以超過二十萬噸。

程度副詞

When the wind howls and the current rips, the force pushing against that ship is colossal enough to snap steel cables like thread.

當風狂吹、洋流湍急時，推動船隻的力量大到足以把鋼纜扯斷。

基礎被動語態

Yet these floating cities are held in place by a single metal hook that looks tiny in comparison.

然而，這些漂浮城市卻只靠一個看起來小小的金屬鉤固定住。

If you dropped that anchor in the middle of the deep ocean, the it would do absolutely nothing.

如果你把錨丟在深海中央，它根本就沒什麼用。

And if you tried to pull it up the wrong way, you'd sink your own ship.

而且如果你用錯方法去拉它，你可能會把自己的船弄沉。

How do captains know how much chain to use?

船長們怎麼知道要用多少錨鏈呢？

How do they possibly lift a 20 ton anchor out of the mud?

他們是怎麼把二十噸重的錨從泥裡吊起來的？

And what happens when the water is too deep?

Today we're answering the questions you didn't know you had about the heavy engineering of anchors right here on simple things, surprising histories, foreign.

今天我們要來解答你不知道自己擁有的關於錨的重型工程的疑問，就在這裡，簡單事物，驚人歷史，外國。

To understand how an anchor works, you first have to respect the chain.

要了解錨的運作方式，你得先尊重它的錨鏈。

On a large vessel, we aren't talking about a chain you buy at the hardware store.

在大型船隻上，我們說的不是你在五金行買得到的鏈條。

A single link of a cruise ship's anchor chain can weigh over 300 pounds more than a large refrigerator.

一艘郵輪的錨鏈，單節的重量就可能比一臺大冰箱還重三百多磅。

The anchor itself might weigh 15 to 20 tons, but

錨本身可能重達十五到二十噸，但是

the chain attached to it is often much heavier than the anchor itself.

連接它的錨鏈，重量通常比錨本身還要重得多。

When a captain anchors, they don't just drop the hook to the floor.

船長在下錨時，並不是直接把鉤子丟到海底。

They lay out a massive line of this heavy chain along the seabed.

他們會在海底鋪設一長串沉重的錨鏈。

The weight of the chain sinks into the mud and acts like a spring.

錨鏈的重量會沉入泥中，像彈簧一樣作用。

When a wave pushes the ship back, it has to lift tons of heavy steel chain off the floor before it can even tug on the anchor.

當海浪將船隻往後推時，船隻必須先吊起數噸重的鋼纜，才能拉動錨。

By the time the pull actually reaches the anchor, the force is horizontal drops, driving the anchor deeper into the ground rather than pulling it out.

等到拉力真正傳到錨時，力道已經變成水準，將錨更深地壓入海底，而不是將其拔出。

If a ship breaks down in the middle of the Pacific, can it drop anchor?

如果船隻在太平洋中間發生故障，還能下錨嗎？

Commercial ships generally cannot anchor in water deeper than about a hundred meters, or roughly 300ft.

一般來說，商船無法在超過一百公尺（約三百英尺）深的水域下錨。

If you're in the middle of the ocean, where the water is two miles deep, the chain itself would be too heavy to hold.

如果你在海洋中間，水深兩英里，光是錨鏈本身的重量就太重了，無法支撐。

The sheer weight of hanging that much steel vertically would snap the windlass, the winch that holds it, even rip the bow off the ship.

光是垂直懸掛那麼多鋼纜的重量，就會扯斷絞盤（固定錨鏈的捲揚機），甚至撕裂船頭。

So in the deep ocean, ships don't anchor, they drift.

所以，在深海，船隻不下錨，而是漂流。

Or if they're modern drill ships, they use dynamic positioning, using computers and thrusters to constantly swim against the current to stay in the exact same spot without touching the bottom.

或者，如果是現代的鑽油船，牠們會使用動態定位系統，透過電腦和推進器不斷對抗洋流，停留在同一個精確位置，而不接觸海底。

So when they are in shallow water, how does the captain know how much chain is out?

所以當船隻在淺水區時，船長怎麼知道放了多少錨鏈呢？

It's not like they can stick a head out the window and look underwater.

這是透過一種非常傳統的測量方式來完成的，叫做「shackle」。

It's done through a very old school system of measurement called the shackle.

一段標準長度的錨鏈稱為「shot」或「shackle」，長度是 27.5 公尺或 90 英尺。

A standard length of chain is called a shot or a shackle, which is exactly 27.5 meters or 90ft.

這些鏈節會用一種特殊的活動接頭連接起來。

These sections are joined together by a special detachable link.

船員會將這些連接的鏈節漆成鮮豔的顏色，通常是白色、紅色或藍色。

Crew members paint these joining links in bright colors, usually white, red or blue.

他們也可能在鏈節上纏繞不鏽鋼線，這樣即使在黑暗中，也能透過觸摸或手電筒辨識。

They might also wrap stainless steel wire around the links so they can be identified even in the dark, by touch or flashlight.

當錨鏈從錨孔（hawse pipe）甩出時，船頭的軍官會計算這些顏色閃過的次數。

When the chain is flying out of the hawse pipe, an officer on the bow counts the flashes of color.

That tells the captain exactly how much weight is on the bottom and if they have enough scope to hold the ship safely.

這能讓船長精確知道有多少重量在海底，以及是否有足夠的錨鏈長度來安全地固定船隻。

最後，最難的部分，就是離開。

Remember, a 20 ton anchor buried in mud creates a massive suction seal.

記住，一個埋在泥裡的 20 噸錨會產生巨大的吸力密封。

The motor would burn out trying to fight the ocean floor.

馬達會因為試圖對抗海底而燒毀。

And to get the anchor back, the ship actually drives slowly, moving directly over the spot where the anchor is buried.

要讓錨回來，船會緩慢前進，直接開到錨埋著的地方上方。

The chain goes vertical, pulling straight up on the shank of the anchor.

錨鏈會變成垂直，直接向上拉扯錨的錨桿。

As the anchor rises, it's usually covered in tons of sticky, smelly mud.

當錨升上來時，上面通常會沾滿黏黏的、很臭的泥巴，有好幾噸重。

Before it enters the ship, high pressure water jets inside the hawse pipe blast the mud off so the chain locker stays clean.

在它進入船艙前，錨管裡的高壓水柱會把泥巴沖掉，這樣錨鏈艙就能保持乾淨。

Once the anchor is secured against the hull, the ship is free to move again.

一旦錨固定在船身上，船就可以再次啟動前進了。

From the massive weight of the links to the color coded paint, anchoring is a mix of brute force and precise calculation.

從巨大的錨鏈重量到顏色編碼的油漆，錨泊結合了蠻力與精確的計算。

If you enjoyed this deep dive, hit that like button and subscribe to Simple Things to uncover more surprising histories hidden in plain sight.

如果你喜歡這次的深入探討，請按讚並訂閱 Simple Things，發掘更多隱藏在日常事物中的驚人歷史。

Thanks for watching and I'll see you in the next one.