Bitts

Shipboard bitts
Shoreside 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]

  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.