A mushroom anchor is used as a permanent mooring connection for boats in places where the bottom is sandy or silt-covered. Such anchors come in all sizes from little ones that will hold your rowboat in place to truck-sized ones meant to moor a small cruiser. Picture a metal dish with a stem welded into its inside so that if you invert it, it looks like a mushroom. A chain and a float are attached to the stem, and the dish is buried in the sand underwater with the stem sticking straight up. You tie your boat to the float.

This is a closeup of a mushroom anchor that has been sitting out of the water for some time. There's just a skin of ice on top of the collected rain water (temp was about 28 degrees F that day), with a bubble of air trapped underneath.

Copyright © 2008. Permission is granted for not-for-profit us of this image provided appropriate credit is given. The image may not be sold or used for profit without consent of the owner. For photo credit information or for information about other uses of this image, send a message to The Fool.