Last updated: January 29, 2021
Place
Anchor
NPS Photo
Quick Facts
Location:
1501 E Evergreen Blvd, Vancouver, WA 98661
Significance:
A large anchor found in the Columbia River.
Amenities
1 listed
Historical/Interpretive Information/Exhibits
Whose anchor was this?
This anchor was dredged up from the Columbia River, near the location of Fort Vancouver's historic wharf. Its ship is unknown. Was it lost from a large ship that came up the Columbia during the 19th century? Was a later ship using an old anchor? Or was this anchor simply being transported as salvage from elsewhere?
It is a Rodgers small-palm anchor, patented in England in 1832. With small improvements, this type continued to be used into the 20th century as a stream anchor. The chain is wrought iron with studs, an improvement to chain links that was patented in 1813.
This size of anchor would have been used on a ship of up to 1,000 tons. Although a significant amount of river traffic sailed up and down the Columbia River - including Hudson's Bay Company supply ships, British and American war ships, and steamers transporting goods and troops - few, if any, ships of this size ventured over the Columbia River Bar and this far upriver.
Most ships that came to Fort Vancouver during the fur trade period were well below 500 tons. The USS Massachusetts, which brought the first U.S. Army troops to Vancouver, was 765 tons.
This anchor's presence here remains a mystery. How do you think it might have ended up at Fort Vancouver?
This anchor was dredged up from the Columbia River, near the location of Fort Vancouver's historic wharf. Its ship is unknown. Was it lost from a large ship that came up the Columbia during the 19th century? Was a later ship using an old anchor? Or was this anchor simply being transported as salvage from elsewhere?
It is a Rodgers small-palm anchor, patented in England in 1832. With small improvements, this type continued to be used into the 20th century as a stream anchor. The chain is wrought iron with studs, an improvement to chain links that was patented in 1813.
This size of anchor would have been used on a ship of up to 1,000 tons. Although a significant amount of river traffic sailed up and down the Columbia River - including Hudson's Bay Company supply ships, British and American war ships, and steamers transporting goods and troops - few, if any, ships of this size ventured over the Columbia River Bar and this far upriver.
Most ships that came to Fort Vancouver during the fur trade period were well below 500 tons. The USS Massachusetts, which brought the first U.S. Army troops to Vancouver, was 765 tons.
This anchor's presence here remains a mystery. How do you think it might have ended up at Fort Vancouver?