TIL sailing ships commonly moved around without wind by warping
TIL sailing ships commonly moved around without wind by warping
Warping is throwing an anchor either manually for a small ship or by rowing the anchor out and dropping it farther away for a larger ship. Then the ship would reel it to change position. Good for maneuvering in harbor. Etymologically related to "throwing" and essentially threading a needle across the sea.
Warp factor get you asses in the rowboat. Engage.
Would love to hear an expert talk be about this more. It's an interesting idea, but seems like it would be limited in usefulness to small adjustments.
I stumbled on it when figuring out just how the hell tall ships docked and undocked without tugs. Turns out they did use tugs in the form of rowboats but they also extensively used shoreside rigging and warping.
Edit: and I should add, they very rarely actually docked in the first place because it was such a pain in the ass, so they used tenders instead mostly
This also bugs me in movies whenever someone is kicked off the boat, but they're given a small rowboat and some provisions. Like, that wasn't an extra boat. It serves a purpose on the ship, and everything that takes up space on a boat is precious. A "spare" rowboat could be the difference between life and a horrible death. It could be months before they find a port where they can buy a replacement rowboat.
I guess it would be valuable in shallow water, less useful in the deep ocean, and overall better than being stuck in one place!
Yeah me too. I tried searching around but it's hard to find something that's not sci-fi related about this topic. It might also be called "kledging" from what I read, but not sure if that's the exact same thing.
Have to admit, after reading the title I double checked the community for 'onion'!
Pipe lay (etc) anchor barges do this today.
There are usually six to 8 anchor winches on the vessel. A tug comes to the barge, picks up the anchor and moves it out to some point while the winch unreels. Repeat for other anchors. Winch in to move the vessel.
This is used for precision movement/placement of the barge.
Many vessels use azipods and Dynamic Positioning System (DPS) these days.
But before DPS much of offshore infrastructure was placed by anchor barges.Those vessels have truly advanced warp drives.
Depends on the quality of the dilithium crystals..
I’ve been kedging for hours and I still don’t think I’m close
Imagine actually moving like this. “Here little ship, take our anchor, we can move another 100 meters and only have to repeat a million times”
Sounds like a lot of work. I have no idea how heavy a ship's anchor is, but I imagine it would be hard to throw any significant distance.
How does one "throw" an anchor tho
Just have 26 STR and 9 DEX.
Try piercing but hole.
A very strong Scottish guy
For smaller boats, you throw an anchor with your hand like this.
If you do it in water it's not as heavy.
The rope attached to the anchor chain is called the "warp". Hence warping.
But where did they get the dilithium?
Two lithium rocks
This is something to propose for Wikipedia's April 1st front page...
Wait till he hears about looms!
Hey warp and weft is why I mentioned threading a needle across the sea.