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Dropping anchor to engineer a Titanic re-creation
IT's the world's most famous shipwreck, lying on the sea floor two and a half miles below the surface of the storm-tossed Atlantic Ocean.
But a team of Sheffield engineers have been bringing memories of the Titanic back to life - by creating an exact replica of the mighty ship's anchor.
The project at Sheffield Forgemasters was commissioned by Channel 4 for a new five part series to be shown this autumn, titled We Built Titanic.
Weighing approximately 16 tonnes, the anchor is the result of more than six months of meticulous planning, casting, forging and machining at the company's Brightside Lane base.
Researchers for the series discovered that Forgemasters was the only company in the UK capable of manufacturing the heavy components required for the anchor.
The finished product will be hammer tested - a tradition Edwardian method which uses a 10lb sledge hammer to test its durability - before being transported for display in Netherton, Dudley, where the original anchor was manufactured in the early 20th century.
Roger Richardson, director of the foundry at Forgemasters International Ltd, said: "The anchor has been a very rewarding project to work on.
"The Titanic was the most famous ship in modern history, its story captivates people all over the world and to be involved in recreating part of that story is a once in a lifetime opportunity.
"At Forgemasters we still use some of the traditional techniques and processes that would have been used to make the original anchor, but we combine these with some of the most state-of-the-art technology and equipment in the world."
Planning for the anchor started in February this year with the creation of detailed engineering drawings of the component.
Roger said: "None of the original engineering drawings have survived, so our team had to carry out extensive research, collecting photographs and patents of the anchor and calculating its dimension from its known weight.
"We then had to use this research to compile our own extremely precise engineering drawings to work from."
The replica is made up of two separate components - the cast head and the forged shank - which have been assembled to create the full-size anchor.
Roger said: "The casting of the head began with the creation of a full-size wooden pattern which then acts as a template for a sand and resin mould.
"Molten steel is then poured into the mould, before being heat treated in a furnace at 960 degrees Celsius to improve the properties of the steel."
The shank of the anchor was forged from a solid steel ingot, using Forgemasters' 4,000 tonne press.
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Channel 4 history commissioner Julia Harrington said: "This series will provide a new perspective on the Titanic, by exploring the British working classes whose collective effort and extraordinary feats of manual labour created what was then the biggest, most luxurious and most advanced man-made moving object in the world.
"Filming the creation of the Titanic anchor at Sheffield Forgemasters was a fascinating experience and a definite highlight. The huge amount of expertise and care that goes into creating something on that scale is unbelievable."
A total of 1,517 people died when the Titanic struck an iceberg on April 14 1912, just four days into her maiden voyage from Southampton to New York.
mike RUSSELL
News Reporter
Meticulous planning: The 16-tonne anchor constructed by engineers to replicate that on the ill-fated Titanic.
Rewarding project: Forgemasters staff work on the anchor which has two separate components of the cast head and the forged shank
Rewarding: Forgemasters staff.
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