MAGNESIUM said..Thank you that is exactly what I needed.
the first time I heard about it was a tall ship on a lee shore dropping the second bower anchor in a last ditch effort to sail the ship off the Lee shore,
now all I need is to remember which book I read about it
It may have been a novel by English author Richard Woodman, with his character Nathaniel Drinkwater, a great series of Age of Fighting Sail stories. It would have been one of the middle books in the series called 1805 or Baltic Mission. It starts with a dramatic chapter where the ship has to do an immediate tack, no sea room to wear ship. The anchor is dropped from the bow with a rode going to the stern. After the tack, Drinkwater's trusty bosun severs the cable with one stroke of an axe. The cable and anchor are sacrificed, but needs must!
