Have you ever been on a battleship, or a cruise ship ... and seen what that chain looks like? This is not the chain you pull your Chevy out of the ditch with.
I’ll give you a hint ... each link of the chain weighs in the neighborood of 150 - 350 lbs. Depending upon the anchor’s size and location. And that’s a weight per Link. The anchor alone is in the neighborhood of 20-50 tons. After all, that anchor is designed to hold the 70-120,000 ship still, against the oceans’ current.
Yeah, it will snap just like a thread....
I didn’t read the article, but I wonder if anyone noticed when it happened (other than warning lights, etc. that I imagine would be in place).
I know their have been expensive underwater searches for anchors and chains where they have been lost. So I imagine this was a costly drunken mistake by the guy.
The chain itself would not snap. However, the last link would give way and at most part of the chain locker where the chain is secured would give way. The hull may or may not get dented. As far as the windlass goes, it is most like OK - the chain runs over the windlass and the windlass would just spin - may ruin the bearings. The ship was most likely built to ABS or LLyods ship classification standards. They all require that the anchor can run like that without a lot of damage to the rest of the ship.
Oh, by the way, I’m writing this from my office on a ship right now - Chief Engineer’s office, so I do have some knowledge/experience dealing with ships.