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 An anchor is a device, normally made of metal , used to secure a vessel to the bed of a body of water to prevent the craft from drifting due to wind or current. The word derives from Latin ''ancora'', which itself comes from the Greek ἄγ ...

when raising it (weighing anchor) or lowering it (letting go), and for carrying the anchor on its stock-end when suspended outside the ship's side. The cathead is furnished with

sheave A sheave () or pulley wheel is a grooved wheel often used for holding a belt, wire rope, or rope and incorporated into a pulley A pulley is a wheel on an axle or shaft that is designed to support movement and change of direction of a ...

s at the outer end, and the inner end (which is called the cat's-tail) fits down on the cat-beam. The shank painter is a short

rope A rope is a group of yarns, plies, fibres, or strands that are twisted or braided together into a larger and stronger form. Ropes have tensile strength and so can be used for dragging and lifting. Rope is thicker and stronger than similarly ...

chain A chain is a serial assembly of connected pieces, called links, typically made of metal, with an overall character similar to that of a rope in that it is flexible and curved in compression but linear, rigid, and load-bearing in tension. A c ...

by which the shank of an

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 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 when raising it (weighing anchor) or lowering it (letting go), and for ...

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 A stockless anchor (or "patent anchor") is a streamlined derivation of the traditional Admiralty anchor An anchor is a device, normally made of metal , used to secure a vessel to the bed of a body of water to prevent the craft from dri ...

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 The surname Mainwaring ( or ) is an Anglo-Norman territorial surname deriving from "Mesnil Warin" (or "Mesnilwarin", "Mesnilvarin", "Mesnil Varin"), from the village of Le Mesnil Varin (= "the manor of Warin"), now Saint-Paër, Normandy. Notable ...

'' and ''

Boteler Boteler is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Alexander Boteler (1815–1892), 19th-century American politician and clerk from Virginia *Arnold le Boteler Arnold le Boteler, the first recorded 'lord' of the Welsh village of Pem ...

'' in their dictionaries. The Mainwaring dictionary was written in 1623. Nautical author

Robert Charles Leslie The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of '' Hruod'' ( non, Hróðr) "fame, glory, h ...

, 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." ''Old Sea Wings, Ways and Words in the Days of Oak and Hemp'' (1890), page 154 Vasa beakhead1

Additional nautical use of the term

A second "cat head" was associated with a ship's anchor-cable and

windlass The windlass is an apparatus for moving heavy weights. Typically, a windlass consists of a horizontal cylinder (barrel), which is rotated by the turn of a crank or belt. A winch is affixed to one or both ends, and a cable or rope is wound arou ...

. 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 Seizings are a class of stopping knots used to semi-permanently bind together two ropes, two parts of the same rope, or rope and another object. Akin to lashings, they use string or small-stuff to produce friction and leverage to immobilize la ...

. 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

{{Sailing ship elements Sailboat components Nautical terminology