The Cathead
The cathead is a heavy beam projecting from the bow of a ship, one on each side, used to lift and secure the anchor. When the windlass has hauled the anchor chain short — the anchor hanging at the hawsehole — the cat tackle hooks the anchor ring and hoists it clear of the hull, swinging it outboard and up to the cathead. There it is lashed in place, the flukes pointing outward, the shank against the beam. Without the cathead, a raised anchor would hang against the bow plating, smashing into it with every roll and pitch. The cathead holds the anchor away from the ship: close enough to deploy quickly, far enough not to destroy the thing it is meant to hold.
The cathead sheave is the pulley at the beam's outer end, through which the cat tackle runs. On a ship of the line, the bower anchor weighed four or five tons. The sheave and its pin bore that weight repeatedly — every time the anchor was raised, every time the ship made port, every time the anchor watch ended and the ground tackle was secured. The beam itself was one of the heaviest single timbers in the ship, projecting six or eight feet beyond the hull, cantilevered from the bow structure. The load was enormous and the leverage unfavorable. The cathead solved the problem by accepting it: projecting an arm far enough outboard that the anchor cleared the hull, strong enough to hold it there, and positioned at the bow where the motion was greatest.
On seventeenth- and eighteenth-century warships, the outboard end of the cathead was carved into the face of a cat. The cat was a symbol of watchfulness — always alert, eyes forward, the quality desired of the bow lookout. The carved face peered ahead from the very front of the ship, whiskers and ears and open eyes facing the horizon. The name stuck: the cathead, the cat stopper, catting the anchor. The decoration was not ornamental in the way a figurehead was ornamental. It was closer to a label: the carved cat marked the fitting's purpose. The beam watched for the anchor the way a cat watches for what it expects to catch — with the particular patience of something that has done this many times.
Three catheads: a lifting beam, a working sheave, a carved face. Each projects forward from the bow into the space between the ship and the sea. The cathead exists because the anchor — the ship's heaviest and most dangerous piece of gear — must be stored where it can be deployed and secured where it cannot do harm. The beam reaches out, lifts the weight, and holds it at arm's length. The cat's face at the end is the right symbol: watchful, patient, and unsurprised by what comes up from below.