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An anchor is a metal device used to hold a vessel to the bottom of a body of water in order to prevent it from floating owing to wind or current. The term originates from the Latin ancora, which is derived from the Greek (ankra).

Temporary or permanent anchors are available. Permanent anchors are used to create moorings and are seldom changed; moving or maintaining them usually necessitates the assistance of a professional service. Vessels are equipped with one or more temporary anchors of various designs and weights.

A sea anchor is a drag device that is not in touch with the bottom and is used to reduce a vessel’s drift in relation to the water. A drogue is a drag device that is used to slow or guide a vessel approaching a storm in a following or overtaking sea, or crossing a bar in a breaking sea.’

Anchors get their holding strength by “hooking” onto the bottom, by mass, or by a combination of both. Permanent moorings are made up of huge masses (usually a concrete block or slab) that lie on the seafloor. Large ship’s anchors and semi-permanent mooring anchors (such as mushroom anchors) receive a major amount of their holding strength from their bulk, which hooks or embeds in the bottom. Metal flukes on modern anchors for smaller vessels catch on to rocks on the bottom or bury themselves in the seafloor.

The rode connects the vessel to the anchor (also called a cable or a warp) Rope, chain, or a mix of rope and chain can be used. The scope is defined as the ratio of rode length to water depth (see below).

The area of the seafloor where an anchor is held, as well as the associated ship or boat, is known as holding ground. Different anchors are intended to hold in various types of holding ground. Some bottom materials, such as firm sand, hold up better than others; for example, shell holds up badly. Obstacles can make holding ground difficult. For its holding ground, an anchorage location might be chosen. Only the weight of an anchor counts in bad holding ground; in excellent holding ground, it can dig in and the holding power can be much higher.

The first anchors were most likely rocks, and several rock anchors going back to the Bronze Age have been discovered. Anchors for pre-European Maori waka (canoes) were hollowed stones connected with flax ropes. Many contemporary moorings still use a big boulder as the major structural feature. However, utilising pure mass to withstand storm forces only works as a permanent mooring; moving a huge enough boulder to a different place would be almost impossible.

The ancient Greeks utilized stone baskets, huge sacks loaded with sand, and wooden logs filled with lead. Anchors were constructed of stone, according to Apollonius Rhodius and Stephen of Byzantium, and they were also made of wood, according to Athenaeus. The vessel was only held afloat by the weight of the anchors and friction along the bottom.

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