An Old Anchor

1900

Not long ago the crew of an English trawler engaged in lobster-fishing, near Kinsale, had great difficulty in getting their anchor aboard. It was firmly fixed in some massive, hard substance in the sand-bank.

When at last they succeeded in bringing it to the surface, there was attached to it a very ancient anchor five tons in weight, the shank being over ten feet long and the bend of equal proportions. Fastened to the anchor was a small cannon.

The anchor, which probably belonged to one of the ships of the Spanish Armada, wrecked on this coast, had become covered with marine matter, and this, in the three centuries during which it had been imbedded in the sand, had been converted into a rocky fossil substance.

The anchor is, of course, considerably worn; but it still presents a very massive appearance, and must have belonged to a large ship. — Youth's Companion.