Tugboats: The Hardest Working Work Boat There Is

Small work boats can usually be seen in the many harbors of the world, docking and undocking ships. These are more commonly known as tugboats and their job basically goes like this: The boat's captain moves the vessel alongside a ship, and then the tugboat's crew sends a large line to the ship, which is fastened onto the ship by its crew. Once all the lines are securely attached and everything is set, a docking pilot will direct instructions over the radio to the tug captain who will then maneuver the ship into or out of her berth.

The equipment one can find on a tugboat usually consists of the following: a stout line of about four inches in diameter, a small messenger line to haul the heavy line onto the ship's deck, and an even smaller heaving line to get the messenger line on board the ship. Once the stout line is up and both ends are fastened, the crews of both ships stand back while the captain and the docking pilot do their job.

The work of a tugboat remains the same wherever it may be. It gets to the job, puts up a line, and moves around until the larger boat is in the desired position. Once that's done, the tugboat crew brings the lines in, straightens them up, and prepares for the next vessel that needs maneuvering assistance.