A pair of midcoast lobstermen were almost done hauling traps Tuesday when they pulled some ancient history out of the depths: A large anchor covered in a thick layer of rust and sea coral had snagged on one of their traps.
“It was kind of exciting,” recalled Logan Aiken, who serves as sternman on Sweet Victory, the lobster boat owned and captained by his brother Peter.
This was not the first time the brothers — who fish out of Cushing — had caught an old anchor: They pulled up another one a few years ago, but it fell back into the sea before they could wrangle it in. This time around, they avoided that mistake by quickly slipping a line around the iron beast and yanking it into the boat.
The anchor is clearly old, with traditional curving metal arms at its bottom and a vertical shank rising about 7 feet to where a chain once would have been attached. Logan Aiken estimated it weighs 150 to 200 pounds.
The Aikens are not the first ones in their family to successfully catch an anchor: About 15 years ago, their dad hooked one that now serves as a lawn ornament.
And it’s not unheard for others in the industry to haul up even bigger ones. In 2006, a fisherman caught a 500-pound anchor off Seabrook Beach in New Hampshire, and three years ago, another one caught a similarly large one off Prince Edward Island, Canada.
Even so, the Aiken’s catch has given the brothers their own piece of history to puzzle over. They found it roughly 10 miles southwest of Matinicus Rock, some 300 feet underwater. When it came up, some sponges and small crabs had nestled in the thick layer of rust and coral that covered it.
That crust has started to flake off in a few places, exposing the original metal underneath it. From its size and design, Logan Aiken speculated that the anchor may have belonged to a sailing ship from the 18th or 19th century.
“You look at it and you can tell from the grain and the way the metal is corroded, you can tell that it’s hand-wrought iron, not casted or welded,” he said,
However, the rest of the anchor’s story may remain a mystery.
“You can definitely tell that it’s quite old, but other than that, there’s not any sort of identification or markings on it. It’s so corroded, there’s no way to see anything that would have been on it,” Logan Aiken said.
Logan Aiken isn’t sure what his brother Peter will do with the anchor now. It may eventually join the one their dad caught years ago, as an ornament on their lawn.
