Don’t know for sure about the Alex Haley. The one photo of taking the Kulluk under tow showed the crew handling a rope hawser. It was the same way on both cutters I was on. On the fantail there was a big towing bitt. We flacked out the towing line on deck and secured the end of each bight with sma…

Being familiar with a “soft” tow line and the ability to apply a stopper are both skill sets that are best kept handy by all onboard. Particularly on a tug towing a barge, where your big wire towing system could fail and you could find yourself trying to gather up the barge with your emergency syst…

On all the CG cutters I was on, all had soft tow line. From 10”/ 3-strand on my first ship (Yocona) onwards. The 378 foot cutters had a pretty nice tow setup pre-Fram, but after the CIWS was put in the middle of the fantail, we had to shift to a bridle arrangement aft. We towed a lot of ships; inclu…

Agree soft is very good and much better than in my CG days 1966 -1986 with last part Reserve BM1 augmenting at a station. Those days soft mostly meant Nylon & real stretchy or Dacron no stretch at all. Short period on a WPB that was soft line run off a capstan and H bit. All WPB work offshore. They …

[image] slingblade59: The 378 foot cutters had a pretty nice tow setup Do you remember what the towing bitts looked like? My recollection is that it was similar to an H-bitt in function but not in appearance. The lower half was solid steel, not open. The line passed the upper part of the H, (…

You are correct about the bitt arrangement; they were forward of the bitt; as I recall the tow bitt itself was only a fairlead to the bitts. I did soft hawser towing ops on the Yocona (213), Resolute (210), 2 different 378’s (Mellon and Midgett)- prefram and postfram, Point Carrew (82 WPB) and Roano…

Yes, that’s it. Thanks. [image] The tow hawser passed through the opening at the top and was made fast on the bitt which can be seen on the forward side. The capstan on the stbd side.

Towed oil on 1,200’ of 3 strand while decking and as Mste. Strap on the H-Bitt with chain shackled into it, chain run over tow bar and then shackled into thimble on the tug end of the hawser. When towing short, used 2 6’ solid oak hawser board’s, layed hawser into it, tied it down and layed across …

[image] Disabled tug no catenary for the sea state. its hard for me wrap my head around 1000 ft of soft line, maybe a flounder plate holds it down? You don’t really need any catenary if it’s a nylon hawser.

Generally speaking when you encounter an operation that’s towing on a soft hawser, it’s at least 50 years behind the times. The soft hawser will not be the only thing (especially the pay) that’s 50 years behind the times. In 2024, this isn’t something that you need to get involved in. Don’t walk, …

[image] tugsailor: Generally speaking when you encounter an operation that’s towing on a soft hawser, it’s at least 50 years behind the times. Are there any left? I know a lot of modern rig tows are done on synthetic bridles and pigtail connected to a nylon stretcher for shock absorption the…

Ocean Towing with Rope Hawser

Maritime Topics Tugs & Towing

Capt_Phoenix February 10, 2024, 3:36am 19

You don’t really need any catenary if it’s a nylon hawser.

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Ocean Towing with Rope Hawser

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