Ever wonder how to tie a Liberty Ship to the dock? When you visit the SS Jeremiah O’Brien, you may notice the ropes that tie her to the dock. Ropes are the wrong word to use when referring to them on ships – they are always “lines”. Each of the dock lines that connect the ship to the pier has a specific name. The first thing you may notice is how big the lines are. A lot of people wonder what kind of machine would make such a large piece of rope. Machines are employed to make the rope, but to prepare it for use still requires good old-fashioned handcrafted knotwork. This is where the Deck department on the SS Jeremiah O’Brien comes in.
To prepare the giant 12-strand nylon dock lines for the wear and tear of holding a Liberty Ship to Pier 35, they first have to have eye splices tied into them. If you are a fan of knots, you will know that knots can be divided up into several types – bends, splices, and hitches. Splices usually involved deconstructing the piece of rope and re-weaving it into the desired knot. The first step (above) involves marking how far you want to unweave the rope. With an eye splice, this is vital with a ship of this size! An eye splice gets its strength from how much of the strands are woven back into the line.
The “eye” is made by making a giant loop and the piece of rope is folded back and woven into itself. To reduce wear and tear on the line, a piece of canvas material similar to rubberized fire hose is wrapped around it before the next step is done. Wherever the line goes around a bollard (that giant metal horned object they tie the ships to on the pier) or through a place where the line might chafe, this material is used around the rope. For this reason it’s called “chafing gear”.
The final step is to make sure the rope is tightly braided back on itself and the excess is trimmed back. This process is a bit like braiding hair – this used to be a common skill! Here you see members of the deck crew finishing off this process by trimming the ends of the strands of rope with a rope-cutting hot knife. Tape is used to keep the strands from unraveling further. In a line this big, it’s a two-person job to wrangle things into place! And then it can hold her fast to the dock!
Now if you do that about ten more times, you know what it takes to tie a Liberty Ship to the pier! If you are a fan of knots and knotwork, we could use you in our deck department! Fill out the volunteer form today!
Darren McKeeman is a technologist, writer, and consultant who is a volunteer docent and webmaster for the SS Jeremiah O'Brien.
Retired plumbing foreman at the Port of San Francisco, volunteer photographer crew member SS Jeremiah O’Brien, volunteer photographer for the National Park Service