Can we accelerate anchor retrieval of our ships so that they can get underway faster? I believe we can and it makes sense in the faster world to have these options. Specifically consider a Cruise Ship in a Caribbean Island, which is docked and a Hurricane changes course.

The ship will need to immediately load up all the people and get out of dodge. But it takes 15-20 minutes sometimes to secure the anchor depending on the situation. I propose increasing this speed to an alarming rate, which would allow the ship to immediately hit a switch and start moving. How so you ask?

Well simple really a hydraulic arm would come down from the upper hull parallel to the deck and grab the anchor chain once the chain and anchor were lowered and secured. This arm would remain there until it was time to get underway and move the ship.

When it was time to leave the hydraulic arm would move the chain like a crane along the side of the ship and thus picking it up some 5-8 stories in a single movement. The ship can then start moving, while the rest of the chain continues to feed. This would allow for instant departures incase of storms or Tsunami Warnings.

After all in a Tsunami a ship only needs to go out to see a few miles to be safe since the wave moves rapidly underneath until it is forced up to the surface via the coastline underwater slopes. For military ships this also makes sense to prevent being caught in port during an attack. Consider all this in 2006.

"Lance Winslow" - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; http://www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/