Warping (sailing)

"Kedge" redirects here. For the French grande école de commerce et de management (Private research university Business school), see KEDGE Business School.
HMS Thetis aground

Warping or kedging is a method of moving a sailing vessel, typically against the wind or current or out from a dead calm, by hauling on a line attached to a kedge anchor, a sea anchor or a fixed object, such as a bollard or tree. In small boats, the anchor may be thrown in the intended direction of progress and hauled in after it settles, thus pulling the boat in that direction, while larger ships can use a boat to carry the anchor ahead, drop it and then haul.[1] For example, the sloop Adventure under the command of the infamous pirate Blackbeard ran aground attempting to kedge the Queen Anne's Revenge off the bar near Beaufort Inlet, North Carolina, in June 1718.[2]

  1. ^ Schell, Andy. "The Lost Art of Kedging: how to set a kedge anchor". sailmagazine.com. SAIL. Retrieved 30 August 2015.
  2. ^ D. Moore. (1997) "A General History of Blackbeard the Pirate, the Queen Anne's Revenge and the Adventure". In Tributaries, Volume VII, 1997. pp. 31–35. (North Carolina Maritime History Council)