Mooring facts for kids

A dockworker places a mooring line on a bollard.

A vessel is said to be moored when it is fastened to a fixed object such as a pier or quay, or to a floating object such as an anchor buoy.

Mooring is often accomplished using thick ropes called mooring lines or hawsers. The lines are fixed to deck fittings on the vessel at one end, and fittings on the shore, such as bollards, rings, or cleats, on the other end.

Mooring by permanent anchor can be accomplished by use of a permanent anchor at the bottom of a waterway with a rode (a line, cable, or chain) running to a float on the surface. This allows a person on the vessel to connect to the anchor.

An ancient word, mooring has accumulated a number of related uses and terms.

Images for kids

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  A dockworker places a mooring line on a bollard.

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  Mooring line of Polish ship Fryderyk Chopin.

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  Dor-Mor pyramid-shaped anchors used in mooring

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  A sailor tosses a heaving line to pass a mooring line to a handler on shore.

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  USS Orion (AS-18) "Med moored" with the stern tied to the pier and two anchors forward, in La Maddalena, Sardinia.

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  A wooden mooring bollard

See also

In Spanish: Jarcia de amarre para niños