the down-haul cable. After firing, the gun assembly is 

 retrieved by the single lowering line as the cable reel 

 pays out. Once the messenger line is on board, the 

 main anchor line with couple is sent down the 

 messenger line until coupling with the down-haul 

 cable occurs. It is probable that water depth for this 

 technique could be increased by using a cable bale 

 attached to the gun assembly lowering line, at a point 

 where there would be little restriction upon bale size. 



BOOMERANG ANCHOR «20,000 feet) 



The utilization of this technique requires very 

 little design or development. The basic idea stems 

 from the boomerang corer. Figure B-7 illustrates the 

 deployment and recovery of the anchor. During 

 lowering, the system is about 100 to 200 pounds 

 negatively buoyant. After firing the system is 100 to 

 400 pounds positively buoyant because of fluke 

 assembly expulsion. Firing releases the gun assembly 

 from the anchor line, and it returns to the surface for 

 pickup and refurbishment. An alternate method uses 

 an inflatable buoy, which is activated on anchor firing 

 to recover the gun assembly. Since the system using 

 the noninflatable buoy will only be about 100 

 pounds negatively buoyant, free-fall with the line 

 strung out on the surface or flaked on deck is also a 

 possibility. 



DROGUE FREE FALL (<20,000 feet) 



The depth limitation for this method. Figure B-8, 

 is controlled solely by the design depth of the anchor 

 seals and pressure housings. The depth can be 

 extended as could any of the techniques described in 

 the following paragraphs by redesigning these items. 

 Without a drogue to retard free fall, a rapid acting 

 arming device, a less sensitive bottom sensing mech- 

 anism, and a hydrodynamically stable shape would be 

 required to guarantee proper firing. 



The anchor can be dropped direcdy from a sur- 

 face vessel after the anchor line has been completely 

 laid out on the surface, or the anchor can be dropped 

 from the primary vessel, dragging the line that is 

 either flaked on deck or contained in a bale or on a 

 braked reel. The boomerang method could be 

 coupled with this to recover the gun assembly. 



FLOWN-IN ANCHOR «20,000 feet) 



A technique for accurately positioning the anchor 

 at touchdown is shown in Figure B-9. The ship moves 

 in a line that crosses the desired implant point with 

 the anchor being towed behind it with a synthetic 

 line. The rate of fall and, therefore, line catenary 

 depends upon ship speed. By monitoring anchor 

 position and adjusting ship speed, the anchor can be 

 precisely implanted. This procedure has been suc- 

 cessful with conventional anchors from ships with 

 little station-keeping ability. To prevent premature 

 firing, the arming system would have to be modified 

 for free-fall firing, and the anchor would have to fall 

 vertically. 



AUTO IViOORING «20,000 feet) 



Many possibilities exist for rapidly and automa- 

 tically installing the CEL 20K anchor; these are 

 described in detail by True [11]. An optimum 

 system, referred to as the expedient mooring system 

 in True's study, was chosen that would be useful in a 

 variety of forseeable applications. The desired goal, 

 which was system flexibility, appears to have been 

 achieved. The system. Figure B-10, embodies a single 

 bale to be deployed in free-fall with the anchor. It 

 also includes a large buoy and a line tensioning/ 

 locking device, either or both of which can be deleted 

 from the system when not needed. The 20K anchor 

 is attached to the cable bale housing and is encased in 

 a hollow-nose section. The entire system is hydro- 

 dynamically stable for smooth descent to the sea- 

 floor. System flexibility allows establishment of a 

 taut or slack subsurface or surface mooring. The 

 system is still in the concept phase of development; 

 however, all the components considered for this 

 system exist. It only remains to combine them and 

 evaluate performance. 



36 



