ADMIRALTY ANCHOR

An Admiralty Pattern anchor; when deployed on the seafloor the stock forces one of its flukes into the bottom.

The Admiralty Pattern anchor, or simply "Admiralty", also known as a "Fisherman", consists of a central shank with a ring or shackle for attaching the rode. At the other end of the shank there are two arms, carrying the flukes, while the stock is mounted to the shackle end, at ninety degrees to the arms. When the anchor lands on the bottom, it will generally fall over with the arms parallel to the seabed. As a strain comes onto the rode, the stock will dig into the bottom, canting the anchor until one of the flukes catches and digs into the bottom.

The Admiralty Anchor is a reinvention of a classical design, as seen in one of the Nemi ship anchors. This basic design remained unchanged for centuries, with the most significant changes being to the overall proportions, and a move from stocks made of wood to iron stocks in the late 1830s and early 1840s.

THE MUSEUM

In 1918 the Historic File Museum of Hydra is founded. It is housed in a building that the ship-owner and benefactor Gikas N. Koulouras, donated to the Municipality of Hydra. The Museum is located near the Harbour Authorities, to the east side of the port.

Αntonios D. Lignos, doctor and Mayor of Hydra for over 40 years, tried with great efford to sort and transcribe all the files of the island of Hydra, which he fount in storerooms inside the Holy Church of Dormition. That was the first try to create a File-Museum.

In 1952 Gikas N. Koulouras donated the building to the State. Since then the Historic File Museum of Hydra operates as public service bureau.

In 1972 the building broke down and in its place is built the today Museum with the care and surveilance of the former Bishop of Hydra-Spetses-Aegina Ιerotheos. The Historic File Museum accommodates the library and the files and archives of Hydra.

The Museum operated in July 1996 and since then it runs daily for the historians, researchers and the public. Inside the Museum is the File division, the Museum division and a Library.

One can find many handmade copies of the exhibits in the museum shop.