Bitts

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]

Use

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:

A bollard is a single vertical post useful to receive a spliced loop at the end of a mooring line.^[1]
A cleat has horizontal horns.^[4]

References

^ ^a ^b ^c Knight, Austin M. (1937). Modern Seamanship (Tenth ed.). New York: D. Van Nostrand Company. p. 783.
^ Keegan, John (1989). The Price of Admiralty. New York: Viking. p. 276. ISBN 0-670-81416-4.
^ Manning, George Charles (1930). Manual of Naval Architecture. New York: D. Van Nostrand Company. p. 158.
^ Knight, p.788

[amk-1] Knight, Austin M. (1937). Modern Seamanship (Tenth ed.). New York: D. Van Nostrand Company. p. 783.

[2] Keegan, John (1989). The Price of Admiralty. New York: Viking. p. 276. ISBN 0-670-81416-4.

[3] Manning, George Charles (1930). Manual of Naval Architecture. New York: D. Van Nostrand Company. p. 158.

[4] Knight, p.788

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