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Anchorage

Synonyms / Other Terms Used

Anchoring

Category

Facilities, Transportation, Transport Facilities, Travel, Public Facilities, Tourism

Message / Function

To signify safe boat anchorage resp. to indicate the location of an anchorage area.

 

Source Description
Parks Canada Pictogram 6-4-210: Anchorage Parks Canada Anchor in water, water shown as wavy line
Pictogram No IS,20: Anchorage (Australia, National Aquatic and Recreational Signage Style Manual) NARSSM Anchor
NZS 8603 Outdoor Recreation Symbol No 13: Anchorage NZS 8603 Anchor
Dreyfuss page 153: Anchoring*) Dreyfuss Anchor
BTA 1989 Page 3.16: Symbol Marina BTA 1989 Anchor
Traffic Sign TAD-14: Marina (Brazil)1) DER Anchor
Map Symbol: Marina by Fiori Fiori Anchor
Modley & Myers page 88, NPS: Pictogram Marina NPS Anchor
Hora page 77, SEGD: Pictogram Marina SEGD Anchor
Bolivia: Symbol T003 Port (Puerto) Bolivia Anchor
Pictogram Marina from Neves, page 2522) Neves Anchor placed diagonally

Discussion

Images of an anchor are used quite often as graphic symbols for Port and Marina, but only a few can be found looking for the labels Anchorage or Anchoring. Furthermore in some areas the anchor is also used for Maritime Attractions. As there is also no clear differentiation from all those referents, for our collection above we added some of these variants used to indicate the facilities mentioned. It seems the image of an anchor probably covers the largest semantic space of all maritime related symbols.

We could not find any specific test data concerning Anchorage, but some regarding pictograms displaying an anchor:

In a Comprehension Test for Shipping Pier, conducted in Austria (Brugger, 1977), the pictogram variant from page 153 of the Symbol Sourcebook by Dreyfuss, marked with *) above, was examined also. This image of an anchor elicited 30 % responses concerning Anchorage, another 30 % of the respondents answered with Port, and 20 % gave the answer Shipping Pier. Additional 6 % of the responses were related to Boat and Sea Voyage.

Neves (2012) examined two pictograms for the complex referent Marina / Estaleiro / Atracção de interesse marítimo (Marina / Shipyard / Maritime Attraction) on basis of the Comprehensibility Estimation procedure. These variants, marked as 1) and 2) in the table above, were judged as quite comprehensible: variant 1), which is used in Brazil and Portugal to indicate the location of a Marina, for example, reached a mean value of 80.4, while the pictogram labeled as Neves and marked with 2) was judged a little bit better with a value of 85.4.

Tests of pictograms displaying an anchor

Brugger, Ch. (1977): Abschlußbericht über den Erkennungstest. Report to the Austrian Standards Institute, Vienna, 1977-10-04.

Neves, J. (2012): Sistema de signos para informação turística: Metodologia para o desenvolvimento de sistemas sinaléticos. Tese de Doutorado - Universidade de Lisboa, Faculdade de Arquitetura.

See also

Port, Marina, Mooring
Motorboating, Sailing

 

Updated 2024-11-01 by Ch.Brugger