Why Do Massive Ships Still Use Ropes?

✩ABOUT THIS VIDEO✩
In this video, we take a look at snap-back zones and ask why mooring decks are one of the most dangerous spaces on a ship.

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All content on this channel is provided for entertainment purposes only. Although every effort has been made to ensure the content is accurate and up to date, it remains the responsibility of the viewer to determine its accuracy and validity. The content should never be used to substitute professional advice or education.

[MrSmartman]

Im seafarer myself and just yesterday finished annual course of training videos and tests. And damn man I'd love if they hired you to make those training videos, because 99% of them so boring and poorly made that its just torture to watch. Love your content, keep it going.

[Hybris]

I think even with lineless mooring you will still have ships carrying on board mooring lines for docking at ports that don't have the system or even just have them in case of a system failure for redundancies sake.

[aapur]

I have been hit by the back end of a slipping spring line on a smaller cargo ship before. I was lucky it hit the back of my legs, swiping me off my feet and on my back. The ship was one that only takes 2250 tons of cargo, so not too much force, but it still left me with a serious bruise for several weeks. But yeah a slipping or snapping line is absolutely deadly

[douglasboyle]

There was an incident here in the US a year or two back where a ship broke loose from its moorings and floated into a channel colliding with another moored ship causing lots of damage but fortunately no injuries. The ship was moored up and they were expecting strong winds from a storm so they had extra lines and even a person on the ground monitoring the lines during the heavy weather. According to the NTSB report the captain and crew did everything correctly but the one thing they couldn't have known was that one of the bollards would fail, which when it did it created the cascade effect of failing lines and the ship was loose in a matter of seconds.

[mylesdev]

We were on the Queen Mary 2 this summer when she snapped her lines, resulting in losing 3 gangways and almost hitting another ship. Thankfully no injuries or damage, and the crew did a fantastic job in what I'm sure was a difficult situation.

[CMDRSweeper]

The latter part of the video with "Autodocker extreme" did remind me of something from the fictional universe.
Towards the end of the game Fallout 2, you ride an oil tanker out to an oil rig, this tanker was shown with a clamp that went into a hole in the ship and turned like a key to lock it when moored.

[stephanieparker]

During the flood in Portland in 1996, I was working a security job at the docks. The ship I was assigned to was an old oil tanker that had been there for a long while. That flood brought it up out of the mud and the mooring ropes were tight as piano wires. No one was allowed anywhere near the ship until the waters eased up. I’ll never forget the way the ropes look and the gangplank all torn apart.

[antoy]

Non-newtonian ropes! At 3:55, to prevent snapback while keeping elasticity, we need ropes which retract a lot, but slowly. That’s what non-newtonian liquids to, so they need to make that into ropes ;)

[danielconlon]

Really enjoyed this one.
I cross the Irish sea 8 times a month for work and it never ceases to amaze me how they can deploy and rewind the lines in the most unforgiving weather. Forgive my terminology ignorance I am a freight driver. The ropes are good to allow a small bit of stretch so when on a Ro-pax it can all stretch or relax. In Holyhead they have large buffers alongside.
I always thought some electromagnets could be used to hold a ship in place
I suppose a length of rope is cheap and versatile and doesn't require

[geneard]

I was on a Frigate where the flight deck is also where a lot of the aft line handling occurs. Had wicked bad snap back where the rope end flew all the way into the hanger bay. Luckily no one was hurt and nothing damaged. Same ship was tied up, but in a spot where it could be hit by full seas and weather. Ship was galloping so bad she snapped her forward lines, and they ended up cutting the aft and getting underway without a tug and just went right into the leaving quite a few of us on shore. Lucky I was Air Det and we were working on our aircraft off ship.... so we were stuck there for nearly a week extra.

[robinj]

Excellent video again, thanks. In a former live I was involved in mooring solutions (all sorts of fenders, bollards, cleats, capstans, quick release mooring hooks, etc). The berthing of a large vessel is incredibly complex. Quay or jetty design plays a role, fender and bollard selection, vessel characteristics, etc, etc. The PIANC offers all sorts of recommendations for a proper designed berthing system.

Mooring ropes are still the best universal solution: they offer ways to deal with dynamic loads, they distribute the loads to parts of the vessel that are designed to carry those loads. Under extreme conditions, they prevent damaging the vessel by failing.

Other systems, such as suction berthing systems have a big downside: they apply the load to a part of the vessel that is not designed to handle that load, unless the vessel is adapated for that specific berth. Such berthing systems therefor will not help in case of extreme situations, as that may result in severe damage to the vessel.

Sometimes, it is just hard to improve a thousand year old solution, because it is probably the best solution to start with.

[DeanColegate]

Very interesting :) One thing you didn't mention is the the rise and fall of tide. This is less of an issue for small boats and yachts that tie up to floating pontoons but big ships moor against docksides and the tidal heights (many metres here in the UK) need to be taken into account.

[jhill]

Ropes, though old fashioned, are still the most flexible, universal solution.

[davidpawson]

Ropes from ships washing ashore were perfect for pulling stuck vehicles out on the beach I lived at but only if they were dynamic and not static ropes which you could tell by the weave. The dynamic ropes had a woven jacket or outer layer while the static ropes looked like three big ropes twisted around in a spiral like how rope at the hardware store looks. Helped many people over the years by pulling them out without charge as the towing companies charged a lot just to show up and I was already there.

[Quasihamster]

Some of the inland ships in Europe now have poles they can lower down into the riverbed. They're an alternative to anchors more than mooring lines, but I've occasionally seen them being used for that as well.

[wolfganghilary]

I started watching this channel when it only had 106 subs and im proud to say its one of the things that inspired m to taking engineering im now on my third year, thenk you for what you do❤

[frogandspanner]

I remember, as a kid in the '50s, watching the mooring of the Ellerman's Wilson Line ships on which we travelled Hull<->Rotterdam. I was amazed that something as large as a ship could be controlled by such thin lines.

[derHutschi]

during an excersise "post bag transfer" (I was on a minehunter) the NCO ordered everyone to leave the aft because situation turned dangerous.
we didn`t have "danger zones" but only "safe zones" that were well away of the area
in another situation were I was on the bow crew the NCO ordered the same thing during mooring
Steel can be replaced, limbs not

[jamese]

Ropes have been the standard throughout recorded history. They are simple, cheap, reliable and easy to use. They are unlikely to be replaced, as their strength to weight ratio keeps going up.

[davidhayes]

I always look at your simple and no-nonsense channel when I can. My elder son works on boats …. well ships really ….. and it is kind of reassuring mostly. Keep up the good work. 👍