chingapoo lah

dah..am in singapore now..not new to singapore..but new to working in singapore...not new but yet so new.. and this has caused a few misconceptions to be blown to bits..

Misconception 1: I know the place.

well until i arrived here and started searching for a house that is...last I knew, Boonlay was the western most stop of the east-west line..

imagine my confusion when i see trains running to Pasir Ris and Joo Koon. had me reaching for my wife's bag. ( she picked up an MRT map before, i brushed her off).

Misconception 2 : I understand Singlish (local english)

Prior to this stint, I always breezed through Singapore.
I flew through Singapore. Used to visit my brother & bhabi..or gizmo shopping when ships stop by for fuelling..so on. a Tourist. that's what I can categorise myself until now.

Tourist's get to see the usual places, deal with the usual crowd who are used to dealing with tourists, shop at places where usually tourists go and get on taxis driven by drivers who speak tourist english.

Never before had i worked here and involved so closely with the local public. Now, i have to deal with a wide variety of people every day. people with a wide variety of schooling background. people who speak english, which a tourist will struggle understanding even the drift of the conversation.

phew.

the other day i was talking to a sales rep. and somewhere during the conversation, i asked her a question to which she replied something which sounded like " na-yeigh".
Me: can you get the new quote for me Tara?
Tara: am sorry...." na-yeigh"..but I will get it by the end of is week...

I didn't understand the "-" part of it..but my mind filed it away and worked on the rest of the sentence that Tara said. and that was sufficient data for me. so I just let it go.

I hung up the phone and closed my eyes and just went over the whole conversation again.
"nah-yeigh" was gnawing on my mind. I had to figure this out before I resume my work failing which, I knew, my mind would be working on it..ponder ponder..

examined the various possibilities of what "nah-yeigh" could be.

finally after a few minutes, it dawned on me: not yet.

Singlish is unique.
It is possible for some one to survive on Can, Cannot, maybe lah.

Misconception 3: the country is very neat through out.

My answer : "nah-yeigh". you just need to visit Little India and the by streets bordering the famous Mustafa mall to understand the truth.
Little India has its own rules that the government has to comply with. Here the citizen cannot be fined for littering. Jay walking is a norm rather than the exception. Open rubbish can be left in front of your shops. The list goes on.

Perhaps the only rule that the government enforces heartily is the parking zone rule. the government is only bothered because it is bothered about the open top tourist coach buses that ply these single file roads need to keep running. If they get stuck bcz some desi parks his toyota on the road, tourists will complain and the source of income is disturbed.

may be there will be a day when Little India looks like a part of Singapore. but for now - "na-yeigh"

The Anchor

Hm..so let me explain what my blog name, the anchor, is all about.

T dictionary provides the following meaning/s:

1. Nautical A heavy object attached to a vessel by a cable or rope and cast overboard to keep the vessel in place either by its weight or by its flukes, which grip the bottom.

2. A rigid point of support, as for securing a rope.

3. A source of security or stability.

4. Sports

a. An athlete, usually the strongest member of a team, who performs the last stage of a relay race or other competition.

b. The person at the end of a tug-of-war team.

5. An anchorperson.

I will only refer to the meaning in point Number 1. The anchor n a nautical way.

History of the anchor:

Earliest records of moorings come from Egyptian tomb furniture 2000 BC where ship models were equipped with conical stakes and papyrus ropes for mooring the vessels to the shore. Later tombs 1600 BC yielded ship models with grooved or perforated anchor stones. When the 1400 BC tomb of King Tout was opened anchor stones shaped in a T were found. Four hundred years later, about 1000 BC, Homeric poems still specify "anchors of stone."

Crooked sticks or wooden frames weighted with stone (Killicks] are known to have been in use in ancient times; and are still used in remote regions. Some of these crude anchors show the equivalent of rudimentary stocks. In 800 BC, two-armed hooks, without stocks, were cast in bronze on the island of Malta. A Sardinian scarab, 650 BC, shows a stockless two-armed anchor, which was probably the first anchor made of iron. Greek writers, 500 BC, mention "stone anchors with iron hooks". Herodotus relates that stone anchors were towed astern to steady ships coming down the Nile. A coin of 400 BC shows a two-armed stocked anchor apparently filled with lead.

Its form begins to approximate the "Admiralty" pattern of recent times. An anchor shown on a Greek coin of about 375 BC, includes the essentials of an Admiralty anchor, except palms. The anchor shown on a Syrian coin of about 312 BC, is even more modern in appearance.

By 300 BC vessels of the Athenian navy were equipped with iron anchors weighing up to 440 pounds.

Greek coins of 280 BC show anchors with rudimentary palms. An English anchor shaped from the fork of a yew-tree is ascribed to 100 BC. A Cyrene iron anchor without palms, and inscribed with the ship's name, is attributed to about 50 BC. Depictions of iron anchors of the time of King Herod, about 35 BC, show curious enlargements on the shanks believed to be carryovers from the times when cylindrical perforated stones were strung on wooden anchor-shanks, and also show palms on the arms. Sculptures on the Arch of Tiberius, about 20 AD, show similar enlargements on the shank, but no palms.

About 40 AD the ship of Emperor Caligua was equipped with a 16 foot iron tipped oaken anchor with a heavy leaden stock. This was discovered intact when Lake Nemi, near Rome was drained in 1929. At the same time there was discovered, after 1800 years submersion, a
wood-sheathed iron anchor weighing about 1000 pounds. Distinguished by the fact that it had a portable stock, which was an invaluable convenience lost to the world until "invented" again some 1700 years later and finally adopted by the Admiralty in 1854. In 88-97 AD St. Clement the fourth Pope, is said to have been thrown into the sea, tied to an anchor a method of execution not uncommon in those days. From ancient times St. Clement has been the Patron Saint of Anchorsmiths, who formerly observed his Feast Day on the 23rd of November.

Iron anchors are said to have been first forged in England (East Anglia] in 573 AD The Danish "Oseburg Anchor," about 800 A.D., had very small palms, and was constructed for use with a wooden stock.
The medieval anchor of 1066 AD as depicted in a Bayeau tapestry looks almost modern.

The Statutes of Genoa of 1441 AD required a 1500-ton ship to carry 12 iron anchors of from 1600 to 1800 pounds each. A Florentine engraving of 1450 AD shows a two-piece wooden stock of the style popular for the following 400 years.

The "Sovereign of the Seas," 1600 tons, in 1637 carried 12 anchors of 4000 pounds each. In 1690 Sir Wm. Phipps in his attack on Quebec lost a thirteen-foot anchor, (recovered in modern times]. Anchors of about 1700 had long shanks, straight arms at 50 degrees, sharp points at the crown, large diameter rings, and wooden stocks the length of the shank or longer. An anchor of this style marked "1703" was reclaimed from the wreck of a 100gun ship sunk at Sheerness, England.

In 1723 Reaumur issued in France the first public exposition of the science and art of anchor construction. In 1780 iron stocks began to emerge from the experimental stage, but the popular anchors of the period still had wooden stocks and relatively long shanks and straight arms. In 1801 and succeeding years Richard Pering of England greatly improved the quality of welds in anchors, shortened the shanks and put more curvature into the arms.

In 1804 Captain Hawke of the Royal Navy applied for an iron stocked anchor for his ship and was derided, but 1807 permitted the use of iron stocks in anchors of not over 1500 pounds. In 1818 Lieutenant Belcher of the Royal Navy introduced the tumbling fluke, later improved by Honibal and Porter. With cantpalms added by Trotman, the anchor became quite popular. From 1820 onward some hundred different types of "improved" anchors were patented in rapid succession practically all regarded today as "freaks."

In 1822 and 1823 Lowen and Lawkins experimented with tripping anchor-palms and stockless shanks, some 40 years before these features won general acceptance. In 1830 Pering adapted steam power to the operation of the heavy falling weights used in the welding of anchors. Rodgers introduced his "Patent Small-Palm Anchor and won considerable public favor. The Royal Navy now began to concede the superiority of iron stocks. By 1840 the Hawkins patent tumbling fluke stockless anchor and developed to a form approximating that of most stockless anchors of today.
By 1846 the Royal Navy completely surrendered to the iron stock and gave full sanction to the type of anchors now known as the "Admiralty" anchor. This type of anchor, also known as "Old Style" or "Kedge" is no longer used for large ships but continues in use for small boats and for moorings. Although it has great holding power in a penetrable bottom it is extremely awkward and the long stock is vulnerable to mechanical damage. When in position the upstanding arm may foul a chain or pierce the hull of a vessel. The "one" arm version is popular for moorings and is equipped with a second shackle for easier placement.

In 1852 a British Commission declared the Trotman anchor "Best". By 1859 the Mushroom type of anchor appeared as an instrument especially suited for permanent moorings. With the removal of the stock, from Mertom's anchor of 1861 and the advent of Lathem's anchor 1886 the use of stockless tumbling-fluke anchors increased rapidly. In 1866 the ball-and-socket type of stockless anchor first appeared in England.

In 1870 A. F. White stowed the stocks of "old style" anchors by sliding them down a shank designed with a quarter-twist. In 1873 C. F. Herreshoff constructed a four-piece de mountable old-style anchor for a time widely acclaimed by yachtsmen. "Freak" anchors continuously appeared; for example the Tyzack singlefluke anchor of 1877.

By 1885 Baxter was stowing his Stockless Anchors in a hawse pipe. This innovation proved of utmost importance, for from that day forward, the Stockless Anchor increased in popularity until today it is practically the only type of anchor used on ships of real size.

American styles incline to be chunky, with comparatively broad and blunt flukes. The U.S. Navy's version has flukes somewhat longer and of greater area. European anchors, in general, tend to more curvature and to smaller and sharper flukes. The stockless anchor used today, on ships of size that are likely to encounter any and all types of sea bottom, reflect the experience of mariners for the past twenty five hundred years in compromising between pure dead weight for very hard bottoms and on the other hand ability to bite and to hold well in soft bottoms. The stockless anchor is ruggedly built, will handle and stow easily and readily disengage from sea-bottoms and submerged wreckage.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the stockless anchors principally used in the British navy were Hall's improved, Byer's, and Wasteneys Smith's.

In Hall's improved anchor, the arms and crown of cast steel are in one piece, and the shank of forged steel passes up through an aperture in the crown to which it is secured by two cross bolts. Two trunnions or lugs are forged to the lower end of the shank.

In W.L. Byer's plan, the flukes and crown consist of a steel-casting secured to a forged shank by a through bolt of mild steel, the axis of which is parallel to the points of the flukes; one end of the bolt has a head, but the other is screwed and fitted with a phosphor bronze nut to allow the bolt to be withdrawn for examination. A palm is cast on each side of the crown to trip the flukes when the anchor is on the ground, and for bringing them snug against the ship's side when weighing.

Wasteneys Smith's anchor is composed of three main parts, the shank and crown which form one forging, and the two flukes or arms which are separate castings. A bolt passes through the crown of the anchor, connecting the flukes to it; to prevent the flukes working off the connecting through bolt, two smaller bolts pass though the flukes at right angles to the through bolt and are recessed half their diameter into it.

Modern day:

Present day merchant ships carry stockless anchors with double flukes. These anchors provide high holding power over a large variety of seabed types.

Typically a Very Large Crude Carrier of say about 300000 tons DWT will be equipped with an anchor weighing in the region of 25 tons.

A tanker of about 50000 tons DWT will have an anchor weighing about 9 T.