[griffin]

I agree with most you have said. Emergency anchors should have been dropped, regardless of if there was a tug in the way. Anchor DRAG is not intended to be a infinite immense shock to the main structure of the ship, but a somewhat damped, applied load that will not produce catastrophic failure of ship structure. Yield maybe, but hopefully not complete fracture and failure. But even if it did, so be it. Better to lose the ship in most cases, than a bridge of this size. Ship does not need to be brought to stop, but to as slow a speed as possible to help minimize collision impact damage.

Why emergency anchor release would require power, i don't know. I would think it should not, as loss of power could be the whole reason a dropped anchor(s) might be required. Mechanical sears should be possible to minimize force required to enable release, but i have not designed one.

In any event, I thank you for your excellent commentary.

[the OlLine Rebel]

It may have been dropped, but it may have been too long that it won’t matter. They won’t just STOP. Not the way reality works. There is space and time involved. It’s not a cartoon. Never mind an anchor doesn’t keep it from drifting different directions. It’d need at least 3 strategically placed anchors for that.