# Cathead

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> Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathead
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{{Short description|Wooden beam supporting a ship's anchor}}
{{other uses}}

{{More citations needed|date=September 2024}}
thumb|upright=1.7|An anchor secured to the ship's side. The projecting beam the anchor hangs from when not secured is a cathead (left). The anchor has a stock (cross-piece, in this case wooden) below, and curved flukes above (end-on); the shank is the near-vertical metal bar running between them, lashed with the shank painter
thumb|Cathead on bow of the barque {{Ship||James Craig|barque|2}}; the cat tail protrudes onto the deck and is fastened to the cat-beam.
thumb|The 17th century warship {{Ship||Vasa|ship|2}} with cathead visible upper middle right
A '''cathead''' is a large wooden beam located on either side of the bow of a sailing ship, and angled forward at roughly 45 degrees. The beam is used to support the ship's [anchor](/source/anchor) when raising it (weighing anchor) or lowering it (letting go), and for carrying the anchor on its [stock-end](/source/stock-end) when suspended outside the ship's side.  The cathead is furnished with [sheave](/source/sheave)s at the outer end, and the inner end (which is called the [cat's-tail](/source/cat's-tail)) fits down on the [cat-beam](/source/cat-beam). The shank painter is a short [rope](/source/rope) or [chain](/source/chain) by which the shank of an [anchor](/source/anchor) is held fast to a ship's side when not in use. The process of securing the anchor is called ''catting and fishing'' it. The [cat stopper](/source/cat_stopper) also fastens the anchor on. The purpose of the cathead is to provide both a heavy enough beam to support the massive weight of the anchor, and to hold the metal anchor away from the wooden side of the ship to prevent damage when the anchor is being raised from the water. The [stockless anchor](/source/stockless_anchor) made the cathead obsolete.

In common practice, the projecting end of the beam was carved to resemble the face of a lion or cat. Whether such carving was due to a play on the already existing name of the beam or whether the beam was so named because of the practice of such carving is unknown.

The origin of the term "cathead" is obscure, but dates at least to the 17th century, as it was used by ''Mainwaring'' and ''Boteler''{{clarify|date=April 2020}} in their dictionaries.{{cn|date=April 2020}} The Mainwaring dictionary was written in 1623.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Seaman's Dictionary: 'This book shall make a man understand' |url=https://www.rmg.co.uk/discover/behind-the-scenes/blog/seamans-dictionary-book-shall-make-man-understand |website=Royal Museums Greenwich |language=en |date=2 October 2013}}</ref> <!-- did Nathaniel Butler write the other one?-->

Nautical author [Robert Charles Leslie](/source/Robert_Charles_Leslie), writes: "The term catheads used for the two stout projecting timbers on either bow, from which the anchor hung clear of the ship before letting go, was no doubt connected with the fact of a lion or large cat usually carved upon the end of the item."<ref> ''Old Sea Wings, Ways and Words in the Days of Oak and Hemp'' (1890), page 154</ref>

== Additional nautical use of  the term ==

A second "cat head" was associated with a ship's anchor-cable and [windlass](/source/windlass). This was a square pin thrust into one of the handspike holes of a ship's windlass. When at anchor, the anchor rope (called a cable or catfall) was secured to this with a smaller rope tie called a [seizing](/source/seizing). The English term for this pin was 'Norman'. In German, however, it was called a ''Kattenkopf'' (cat-head), and in this case it is a reference to the traditional way the top was notched and chamfered off so that in cross section, it resembled the ears of a cat.

==References==
{{Reflist}}
{{Wiktionary}}

{{Sailing ship elements}}

Category:Nautical terminology
Category:Sailboat components

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Cathead](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathead) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathead?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.