Possible 200-year-old anchor shines light on once-uncharted Puget Sound
Feb 11, 2014, 1:20 PM | Updated: Feb 12, 2014, 5:42 am
An anchor discovered off Whidbey Island will soon be tested to find out if it is the anchor that once belonged to the HMS Chatham, which sailed the Puget Sound in 1792.
From 1790 to about 1850 was a time when Great Britain, Spain and the very young United States were jockeying to try and take over the Northwest and ultimately make it their territory. Of course, it belonged to Native Americans at that point.
In 1792, Captain Vancouver was in charge of the HMS Discovery, Captain Broughten was in charge of the Chatham, two ships that, despite being sailing ships, were actually quite small measuring at only 80 feet long.
One day, in tough wind and current, the Chatham lost its anchor.
“Really these guys are like the astronauts of their time,” historian Feliks Banel explained to the Morning News on KIRO Radio. “They’re thousands of miles from Great Britain, where they left, there is nobody else out there who could help them with their problem.”
There is some controversy surrounding whether it could be the long lost anchor belonging to Captain Broughten’s ship.
According to Banel, historians, including Richard Blumenthal, have read through the various logbooks and tried to pinpoint the location of the lost anchor, which was only found back in 2008.
“Sailors had lots of time on their hands and they wrote very detailed log entries,” Banel explained.
It’s been hard to pinpoint the location because the Chatham and the Discovery were quite literally in uncharted territory at the time.
Historians have largely believed the anchor should be located in Bellingham Bay, which is why there is some controversy about the anchor near Whidbey Island.
Even though it’s been well over 200 years, anchors that large don’t drift, “I think it’s been stuck where it was lost,” said Banel.
Banel said the anchor is expected to be tested late this year or early 2015.
“What I like about this story is that people don’t know much about the fabulous history we have here,” said Banel. “All those colonial stories of 1776 – we have equally great stories here. These artifacts help us illuminate these stories.”
