Wisconsin's Great Lakes Shipwrecks - Explore Shipwrecks


	windlass
	A machine designed to raise or lower an anchor.


	hawsepipes
	Pipes made of heavy cast iron or steel through which the anchor chain runs; placed in the ship's bow on each side of the stem, or in some cases also at the stem when a stern anchor is used.


	forecastle
	The section of the upper deck of a ship located at the bow forward of the foremast.


	worm gear
	A long, rotating gear in the form of a screw, which meshes with the teeth of another gear.


	capstan
	A vertical, spool-shaped rotating drum around which cable, hawser or chain is wound for hoisting anchors, sails and other heavy weights.


	donkey boiler
	A steam boiler on a ship deck used to supply steam to deck machinery when the main boilers are shut down.

Wisconsin's Great Lakes Shipwrecks - Explore Shipwrecks - Frank O'Connor

FRANK O'CONNOR

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The bow contains a great amount of artifactual material including chain from the chainlocker, a Trotman-pattern bower anchor with a pivoting arm, a mushroom anchor, the ship's steam windlass , a steam radiator, and remnants of the forward superstructure. The Trotman anchor measures 10 feet, 3 inches. This anchor remains shackled to its chain cable, and sits among a great deal of chain in the chain locker. The mushroom anchor is still held inside the port hawsepipe and is clearly visible in historical photographs of the Frank O'Connor. Such anchors were frequently used by bulk carriers of this period to aid in maneuvering a vessel's bow while it was moored or to keep a vessel properly oriented in a crosswind or current while awaiting entry into a lock, canal, or harbor.

The steam-powered windlass, which pulled up the achor chain, was originally mounted on the deck above the forecastle. During the fire, it fell down onto piles of chain below.

The ship's windlass lies forward among the ruins of the chain locker. Originally positioned above on the forecastle deck, the fire dropped the windlass down onto the piled chain. It is a two-cylinder, steam-powered windlass. The cylinders are connected to an overhead crank that drives the windlass. Contemporary drawings show this worm gear also driving, via a bevel gear, a capstan situated on the forecastle deck above the windlass. As there is no donkey boiler to be found in the forward area, the windlass appears to have been powered by steam piped up from the main boilers.

You can learn more about the Frank O'Connor's history and archeological findings in " Davidon's Goliaths: Underwater Archeological Investigations of the Steamer Frank O'Connor and the Schooner-Barge Pretoria," by David J. Cooper and John O. Jensen.

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