Ship's tender
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A ship's tender, usually referred to as a tender, is a boat, or a larger ship used to service a ship, generally by transporting people and/or supplies to and from shore or another ship. Smaller boats may also have tenders, usually called dinghies.
For a variety of reasons, it is not always advisable to try to tie a ship up at a dock; the weather or the sea might be rough, the time might be short, or the ship too large to fit. In such cases tenders provide the link from ship to shore, and may have a very busy schedule of back-and-forth trips while the ship is in port.
On cruise ships, lifeboat tenders do double duty, serving as tenders in day-to-day activities, but fully equipped to act as lifeboats in an emergency. They are generally carried on davits just above the promenade deck, and may at first glance appear to be regular lifeboats; but they are usually larger and better-equipped. Current lifeboat tender designs favor catamaran models, since they are less likely to roll in the calm to moderate conditions in which tenders are usually used. They typically carry up to 100 to 150 passengers and two to three crew members.
Before the technologies that allow submarines and destroyers to operate independently matured during the Second World War, they were heavily dependent upon tenders to perform most maintenance. Their hull classification symbols in the US Navy were, respectively, AS and AD. All of the destroyer tenders have been scrapped, the last two submarine tenders are the ships of the Emory S. Land class. Emory S. Land and her sisters are forward deployed in the Pacific Ocean and Mediterranian Sea regions to support US naval interests in those regions.
Two tenders, SS Nomadic and SS Traffic, were built for the White Star Line by Harland and Wolff to serve the liners RMS Olympic and RMS Titanic at Cherbourg. Nomadic survives as a museum ship, and is the last remaining vessel built for the White Star Line still afloat.
Types of tenders
- Armed tender, British supply or transport ships that were outfitted and commissioned for military use in the naval service.
- Buoy tender, used to maintain navigational aids.
- Destroyer tender, a large ship used to support a flotilla of destroyers or other small warships.
- Dive tender, a ship or boat used to support the actions of divers. Also known as a diving support vessel.
- Lighthouse tender, used to tend lighthouses and, later, buoys.
Fell out of use during the late 20th century, as the capabilities of warships improved[clarification needed].
- Luxury yacht tender, a small boat used on luxury yachts.
- Motor torpedo boat tender, a mobile base and supply ship used to support motor torpedo boats on operations during World War II.
- Seaplane tender, a small ship carrying multiple seaplanes. Also known as a seaplane carrer, and considered to be a predecessor to the aircraft carrier.
- Submarine tender, a large ship used to support a flotilla of submarines.
- Torpedo boat tender, a ship used during the late 19th and early 20th centuries to carry torpedo boats to sea and deploy them against enemy ships
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