2007-06-23 03:54:13 · 7 answers · asked by Moe 1 in Cars & Transportation ➔ Boats & Boating
Terry B has it mostly right....even with the huge 4 and 5 masted steel ships of the 1930's, a good crew could sail really close to a dock or pier...there were then a bunch of different ways to close the last few hundred yards.....lowering an anchor till it just touched the bottom and acted like a drag; anchoring and taking lines ashore to pull in with the ships capstan or winches ashore; the set up in Nelson's Dockyard in Antigua is still there......
above my desk as I type this is a painting of USS Constitution ( Old Ironsides) being towed in a flat clam by her boats across Boston Harbor......four boats each with 20 guys can easily move a ship....not very fast or very far but it can be and was routinely done..
you can also drop one anchor; put another in one of the ships boats, take it way out, drop it; pull up to it and repeat....I do that with my sail boat all the time.....
and the answer about taking cargo out in small boats...that was only done in harbors where there weren't piers........90% of cargo came in and out while a ship was tied to adock.....
2007-06-25 02:10:29 · answer #1 · answered by yankee_sailor 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Mostly with their sails. The old ships were smaller than modern ones, so a good helmsman could see what he was doing. And a sailing ship is more maneuverable than you might think. You'd reef your sails, using just enough sail to keep you moving, approach the dock slowly and carefully, and tie up as you came alongside.
It was a delicate maneuver, though. And it depended a lot on the weather--not just the strength of the wind and its direction, but the tide, the roughness of the water, and so on. When they invented steam tugs, there was always business for them.
For more detail, try here:
http://ask.metafilter.com/45303/How-did-massive-ships-embark-from-the-pier
2007-06-23 07:06:06 · answer #2 · answered by Terry S 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
First steam tug boat was the Charlotte Dundas in 1802 England. Tugs have been around for a while. Before that, sailing merchant ships would anchor and lighter their cargo to smaller harbor vessels, row or sail. Packaging was small enough to be safely handled by simple booms.
2007-06-23 17:31:03 · answer #3 · answered by Richard B 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
They anchored out in the harbor and used dinghies to go back and forth from the ship. So they would sail in as far as they could go without running aground, drop anchor, drop sails, and then use the dinghy.
2007-06-23 04:04:24 · answer #4 · answered by mom of 2 6 · 1⤊ 1⤋
They would be pulled by row boat or pulled by ropes from shore.These would be attached to winches or mules to pull the ship away from the dock and into open water. Once in open water the row boats would take over.
2007-06-23 04:21:47 · answer #5 · answered by brian L 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
They did not dock in harbors. They anchored well off shore and used row boats to enter harbors.
2007-06-23 04:02:11 · answer #6 · answered by ed 7 · 1⤊ 1⤋
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2016-04-02 15:22:10 · answer #7 · answered by Shonta 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋