Whose Anchor? - Vancouver, Washington
Posted by: 
BruceS
N 45° 37.566 W 122° 39.311
10T E 526879 N 5052563
Marker giving some information about an anchor dredged from the Columbia River but also leaves open the all important question, "Whose anchor?"
Waymark Code: WMJ8RP
Location: Washington, United States
Date Posted: 10/11/2013
Views: 8
Text of the marker:
Whose Anchor?
This anchor was dredged from the Columbia River in 1960 near Fort Vancouver's wharf, one-quarter mile east of the Interstate 5 bridge. The anchor gives some answers about its history, but poses many more questions.
It is a Rogers Patent Small-Palm anchor, manufactured in England between 1815 and 1850. The chain is wrought iron stud, used by the British Navy, and probably others, beginning in 1808. This size of anchor came from a ship of 1,000 tons or more, a large ship of the period.
Records of which ship lost this important equipment have not been found. So we are left to speculate about its origins. Is the anchor from a commercial ship visiting Fort Vancouver between 1825 and 1850? The Hudson's Bay Company had many ships in service on the Pacific Coast transporting agricultural goods, salmon, lumber, and furs to Russian Alaska, Hawaii, and England.
Perhaps the anchor is from a war ship? Before the current border between the United States and Canada was established in 1846, England and the United States had naval ships in the Northwest protecting their conflicting interests. Is the anchor naval or commercial, what do you think?