They would have us adopt methods that are more “interpretive” and actually go counter to the original design. Several members of the current supreme court have decided that the founders were not such visionary builders after all. Now, there are some who have gained the control of the system who would weaken the chain. The ship at anchor will swing back and forth and even drag a bit from time to time, but as long as the system works as designed, it holds. While we are dependent on each other to hold together in the bonds of freedom, there is also a strong need for independence in the strengths we have that add together to ensure the chain stands unusual strain and unexpected shifts to port and starboard. Words like responsibility and freedom are equally balanced. What made the chain so strong is the standards that were put into it. While there have been many who have tried to adjust the chain and even break it for their own purposes, none have been successful. Like the anchor on a ship though, it relies on the chain holding it fast. For almost 225 years, that anchor has stood the test of time because the founders made sure to build enough strength into it for any storm. It is the best anchor any ship could ever hope for.
We have an anchor called the Constitution. But the world is a better place when it can see us and know that we will protect the weak, ensure freedom and act as a beacon of liberty. Yes, we can survive rough storms and the seas can often be stormy and unpredictable. Like all big ship’s we occasionally need to dock and in many cases that means we may have to drop anchor to keep from drifting too far from where we need to be. I look at America as the biggest and most powerful ship on earth.īeing an old Navy man, that certainly would be a natural way I would view her. You should never allow amateurs to touch the components that are so well designed and you would absolutely never allow them to try and change the design based on a wish and hope. Only skilled technicians are allowed to repair and replace the links that can be fixed. The anchor chains are carefully inspected and stored in an anchor chain locker. Even the cleverest designers could not design a chain that large without some kind of assembly and that is when you discover that the weakest link could potentially be a lot weaker. The 1,082 feet is broken up into “shots” of fifteen feet and a number of other links that serve a special purpose. Obviously, the individual links have to be able to be assembled rather than cast as a single piece. The weight of an entire anchor chain: 308,000 pounds The weight of each anchor chain link: 365 pounds The length of each anchor chain: 1,082 feet The anchor chains on the Nimitz class are pretty remarkable in and of themselves: I was the officer in charge of the anchor system maintenance and repair on my last ship and I will freely admit I hoped that the company that cast the metal for the links, the men and women who maintained them for the thirty years she sailed, and whatever Angel is in charge of anchors were all having the best of days when they assembled and installed my chains.
WE ARE STRONG TOGETHER CHAIN FULL
That is 60,000 pounds of metal (each) suspended near the bow of the ship with an anchor chain locker full of potential “weakest links”. The Nimitz class ships have two thirty ton anchors that are designed to keep the ship in a fairly stable anchorage. Without a reliable anchoring system, these 4.5 billion dollar boats could end up on the front pages of every newspaper in the world in a very bad way.
The ship itself weighs more than 100,000 tons and are over 1,090 feet in length making them difficult to dock when away from ports that have the capacity to dock them. When you look at the size of a modern aircraft carrier of the US Fleet, you realize that the chain holding her anchor must have mammoth size chain links. “In every chain of reasoning, the evidence of the last conclusion can be no greater than that of the weakest link of the chain, whatever may be the strength of the rest.” Thomas Reid’s Essays on the Intellectual Powers of Man, 1786, included this line: Ultimately, the phrase has been used in more stories and tales about life than most of the alternative phrases combined. It may have been an old Navy Boson’s Mate Chief trying to square away a young non-rated seaman about ship’s lore. I am not sure what philosopher first uttered the words in the title of this post
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