Bitts are paired vertical wooden or metal posts mounted either aboard a ship or on a wharf, pier or quay. The posts are used to secure mooring lines, ropes, hawsers, or cables. [1] Bitts aboard wooden sailing ships (sometime called cable-bitts) were large vertical timbers mortised into the keel and used as the anchor cable attachment point. [2] Bitts are carefully manufactured and maintained to avoid any sharp edges that might chafe and weaken the mooring lines. [3]
Mooring lines may be laid around the bitts either singly or in a figure-8 pattern with the friction against tension increasing with each successive turn. As a verb bitt means to take another turn increasing the friction to slow or adjust a mooring ship's relative movement. [1]
Mooring fixtures of similar purpose:
Bitts are paired vertical wooden or metal posts mounted either aboard a ship or on a wharf, pier or quay. The posts are used to secure mooring lines, ropes, hawsers, or cables. [1] Bitts aboard wooden sailing ships (sometime called cable-bitts) were large vertical timbers mortised into the keel and used as the anchor cable attachment point. [2] Bitts are carefully manufactured and maintained to avoid any sharp edges that might chafe and weaken the mooring lines. [3]
Mooring lines may be laid around the bitts either singly or in a figure-8 pattern with the friction against tension increasing with each successive turn. As a verb bitt means to take another turn increasing the friction to slow or adjust a mooring ship's relative movement. [1]
Mooring fixtures of similar purpose: