Quote:
Originally Posted by Platapus
In the fiction book "final harbor" the author wrote that the US Sub had its anchor removed so that the chains could not shift around and make noise. The author also mentioned the possibility of the anchor coming loose during a depth charge attack.
Does that make sense or was the author BSing?
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Anchor chain can be pretty heavy, each link weighing in excess of 75 lbs, so I would imagine the chain locker wouldn't be affected be the violent shaking of a DC attack. A couple of links might shift towards the top, but I really can't foresee it causing any prolonged sound transient.
As for the removal of the anchor itself, it depends on what kind of boat we're talking about. A WWII fleet boat you could remove the anchor I would think and it wouldn't make a difference to the boats sound signature. Try that on a modern nuc boat and you would have a sizable hole on the exterior that could create flow noise as the water passed over the opening. The same effect you get when blowing across the top of an open bottle.
I also don't see the anchor coming loose during an attack either. When the anchor is in the stowed position the brake is set so as to prevent the weight of the anchor from pulling on the chain, and inadvertently dropping anchor. There is a "weak link" (can't remember the tech term) that attaches the anchor to the chain but even that requires quite a bit of force the break.