Bitts Explained

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]

Use

Mooring lines may be laid around the bitts either singly or in a figure-8 pattern with the friction against tension increasing with each successive turn. As a verb bitt means to take another turn increasing the friction to slow or adjust a mooring ship's relative movement.^[1]

Mooring fixtures of similar purpose:

• A bollard is a single vertical post useful to receive a spliced loop at the end of a mooring line.^[1]
• A cleat has horizontal horns.^[4]

Notes and References

1. Book: Knight, Austin M. . Austin M. Knight . Modern Seamanship . D. Van Nostrand Company . Tenth . 1937 . New York . 783 .
2. Book: Keegan, John . John Keegan . The Price of Admiralty . Viking . 1989 . New York . 276 . 0-670-81416-4 . registration .
3. Book: Manning, George Charles . Manual of Naval Architecture . D. Van Nostrand Company . 1930 . New York . 158 .
4. Knight, p.788