Anchor

a cross that could be denied

Unicode: U+2693 anchor
Meaning: Hope and steadfastness — the thing that holds when nothing else does.
History: Its Christian career begins in concealment. The anchor’s shape contains a cross, and it appears throughout the Roman catacombs at a time when the cross itself was dangerous to display — a symbol chosen because it could be explained away. The letter to the Hebrews supplies the reading directly, calling hope an anchor of the soul.
Variants: The fouled anchor, wrapped with its own rope, is the standard naval form; the plain anchor is the older one.
Related: 十 the Cross archetype; ⚜ the heraldic charges.
Appears: Naval insignia worldwide, port and maritime signage, tattoos, and Christian funerary art.
Evolution: Ship’s tackle → covert cross → emblem of hope → naval and civic badge.

Sources · 3

documented Anchor iconography in the Roman catacombs, and its Christian reading in that period.
documented Hebrews 6:19, the anchor of the soul.
documented The fouled anchor as the standard device of naval services.