Mooring Bollard Question

Howdy!

I'm not much of a ship guy neither. But I'll try to help. First, I think it's not called rope anymore, it's probably hawser or mooring line or cable or something like that. So normally it's pretty high diameter (a few inches or over 50 mm for us metric guys), tying knots on something like that is hardly doable. From what I know, such line would have "hard wound" loop on the end, that would just lay on the bitts. For detail, there's a way sailors put the second loop on the same bitts, so that either of the two loops can then be removed without undoing the other one. Like here:

Watch how the second loop is inserted "from the underside up".

Hope it helps, have a ncie day

Pawel

To start with at least in the Navy rope is wire rope. Fiber is known as line. Most mooring lines are nylon now but in the days of pirates would have been manila. A mooring line has an eyesplice loop at the end of it that would be dropped over the top of a bollard. These lines are heavy so your pirate would not just be standing there holding it, he would have to be in a pose showing some exertion. The other possibilty would be to have a cleat on the dock. The mooring line would be looped around the cleat and then he could be holding the loose end of it while the other end, headed toward the ship, could be disappearing in space.

Excellent picture Pawel, thank you!

Amphib, thanks for the schooling! Unfortunately, my pirate is not exerting himself so I'll probably have to take your second option into account. Hopefully I interpret what you mean correctly. I'm only familiar with small dock cleats, like one you could moor a 20 foot boat up to at my local marina. Something like this:

However, this would be less than sufficient for such a large ship, especially when you consider the weight of the line being used. Are there ones made for larger craft like something a pirate would have used?

Maybe these:

The third picture was what I had in mind but the second picture would work as well. Not sure what you would have found on the docks in the days of pirates, probably some heavy cast iron cleats if it were a developed British port in the Caribbean. Keep in mind that the line to your ship would be at the bottom with a couple of half hitches above it so that the line can easily be thrown off. Your pirate would be holding the line after the last half hitch not the line going to the ship.

Hi Jon,

While I can't really comment on mooring bollards or cleats per se, I do have a suggestion based on something I did on a lighthouse diorama several years ago.

I used wooden dowel rods of the same diameter.  I cut these into three slightly different sizes then wrapped them in thread in two locations as if they were tied together forming a pylon.  I scuffed them up.  Painted & weathered them then hung a piece of 'old' line from it, trailing into the water.  I also put a seagull or two on it to add some scale.  I made three of the pylons and it dressed up my dio pretty well.

A dowel pylon mounted on a planked base might be closer to a period look for your pirate.

Just a thought for you to consider.

Adrian

ARGGHHHHHHHH!!!!!!! Back 'inna day in Kirasou we used a cannon barrel buried ta it's trunnions in th' beach, 'n warped th' line round that! i'fn that failed, we used BillyBondo!

Generally speaking, a bollard is a single mooring post on the shore or ship; an eye or bowline is usually draped over the bollard.  A bitt is usually two mooring posts spaced close together, and the line is wrapped in a figure 8 pattern around the bitts.

Mooring line secured to the bollard with a bowline.

Mooring line secured to bitt by figure 8's.

bondoman

ARGGHHHHHHHH!!!!!!! Back 'inna day in Kirasou we used a cannon barrel buried ta it's trunnions in th' beach, 'n warped th' line round that! i'fn that failed, we used BillyBondo!

Funny that you mention that use of cannons. We use buried 9" Dahlgren guns as bollards around Dry Docks #1 and #2 to this very day at the Norfolk Navy yard in Portsmouth, Virginia.

Wow, ok, some really good information here and I'm quite pleased I got such a candid response! Certainly gives me a lot to think about. I was thinking of using shoe lace for the mooring line as it seems to be the appropriate scale given the size of the pirate. I've got a few ideas swirling in the head now, like instead of depicting him holding the mooring line of a larger craft, perhaps he's on the deck untying a ships row boat, about to row back to his ship anchored out in the harbor. That would certainly help with the issue of his non-exerted pose. Any way, I'll keep you posted as it goes along.

Thanks for the help!