Salty Sam’s Fun Blog for Children
Number 421
Tugs
Hello Everyone
Before l came to live in my lighthouse home, l spent many years travelling the seven seas aboard ships large and small.
Most of the large ships l sailed on were called merchant ships.
They carried goods all over the world.
l was part of the crew that manned these ships.
Sometimes other members of the crew were people l had travelled with before and sometimes they were people l had not met before.
You soon get to know each other when you have chats around the meal table.
The food is nearly always really good on merchant ships – which is good because the rest of the time life can get a bit samey.
Standing on the bridge looking at a fixed point on the horizon for hours can make your eyes glaze over!
The goods carried on ships, like bananas, tea and mobile telephones are usually carried in large metal boxes called containers.
These enormous boxes are loaded onto ships and unloaded at their destination by large cranes. Most countries with a coastline have one or more ports where ships can dock.
Very often, these ports are situated in the mouth of a large river. Sometimes there are sandbanks near the entrance to the port that you need to avoid, especially at low tide.
A ship will need to get to a dock to unload its cargo and then load another cargo to be taken on to another port.
A ship rarely sails empty, it needs to make money all the time it is in operation. ln the office of the ship’s owners, men and women will constantly be arranging for loads to be picked up and taken elsewhere to keep the ship busy and making money for them.
Goods that are offloaded in a port can then be transported inland to other places by river craft, trains or lorries.
Most container ships and oil tankers are so large it is impossible for them to manoeuvre in small spaces like ports. lt can take some really large ships about a mile just to stop. You can’t just put a brake on when you are piloting a ship like you can when you are driving a car!
So to get these large ships into a port, tugs are used.
Tugs are small and very powerful, little boats that pull large ships into port from the sea and then take them out again.
They pull and push them into position once they are inside the port.
Even ferries full of people have need of tug assistance at times.
lf the seas are very stormy in the Channel, or any other seaway, the ports can employ a ‘one ship in, one ship out’ policy – meaning that they will only allow one ship in the port at a time. This is so they don’t crash into each other as they are buffeted about by high waves.
The tugs will be needed to guide the ships in and out; otherwise all the poor passengers aboard the ferries queuing up would be left to wait outside the port until the storm dies down.
Tugs used to have steam engines, but in modern times they have diesel engines. They need to be strong.
There are sea tugs that can drag oil rigs into position or bring disabled ships back home and river or harbour tugs which are generally smaller. River tugs don’t go far out to sea because the design of their hulls makes them unsuitable for travelling on rough seas.
Ropes are tied between the tugs and the large ships. They must be very secure. They are called tow lines.
The people who pilot the tugs are very skilled. They are called tugmen.
They work in the port all the time and know the channels and tides of the area very well.
The captains of the big ships rely on the local knowledge of the tug captains and put their ship in their hands whilst they are entering and exiting port.
Tugs can also be used to break up ice on the surface of the water and assist in fighting fires, especially in harbours, with water jets.
Apparently, they also have tugboat races and tugboat ballet in some places – just to show how tough and manoeuvrable tugs can be.
And tugboats became famous heroes when in March of 2021 a ship called the Ever Given got stuck sideways in the Suez Canal for nearly a week and blocked a trade route important to 12% of cargo being traded around the world. Four hundred ships were held up.
The ship had to be dug out by dredgers and pulled free by tug boats one night as the moon created a high-water tide that lifted the ship.
(To dredge means to scoop mud off the bed of a river to make a waterway deeper.)
Being a tugman is a good job to have, if you love boats, but don’t want to sail too far from home!
Or nowadays, should that be a tugperson?
lf you like my blog, please support it by telling all your friends and followers about it.
Thank you!
And see you again next Fun Friday!
Love and kisses
Salty Sam
www.christina-sinclair.com
Bill and Bob’s Joke of the Week
Bob: Doctor! Doctor! l think there’s something wrong with my back! Have l pulled a muscle?
Bill: Hmm! Well, no, l think it might be a slight curvature of the spine – but it’s only a hunch!
Salty Sam © Christina Sinclair 2015
Unauthorized use and/or duplication of material from this blog without express and written permission from this blog’s author and owner is strictly prohibited.
Links may be used to www.christina-sinclair.com
Picture Gallery
The tugmen need good visibility from their bridge or wheelhouse
Sea tugs have sharper bows
Harbour tugs have rounded bows and have protection around themselves
for when they are buffeted by other vessels
The Ever Given
THE SALTY SAM NEWS DESK
The residents of Rocky Bay have been beginning to get themselves together and start preparing for the summer season this week.
We always have lots of tourists visit us; no matter what the weather is like. There are lots of things for holiday makers to do in Rocky Bay; indoors and outdoors.
I have been helping Captain Jack get his boat ready to take people on rides around the lighthouse – well of course that is – my lighthouse.
He has to look after the engine as well as the body of the boat. It needs an overhaul and a good ‘check up’ every year.
The mayor of Rocky Bay has been planning some summer fun to put in the town’s calendar for this coming tourist season.
There will be a Rocky Bay Fun Run, a Great Rocky Bay Bake Off competition, a Rocky Bay Rare Animal Breeds Show and lots and lots of beach discos.
But the first thing that has to be done is to sweep the promenade at Sandy Cove.
Half the beach is on the promenade after winter storms put it there – and it needs to be put back down where it is supposed to be!
Everyone who has a big broom is invited to take part very spring – in the Great Rocky Bay ‘annual sweep the beach back to where it should be’ tradition!
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Quick Quiz
What do you call these boats?
- a boat to take a holiday on
- a boat that goes backwards and forwards on a stretch a water
- a ship that carries oil
- a ship that carries goods
- a boat to show tourists coral reefs
lt’s the Weekend!
HOW TO MAKE A PACKlNG SET
Here is a DVD player/iPad/notebook cover or slippers bag, accessories bag and square-based pouch to knit. A lovely set of bags in which to pack up all your bits and pieces and keep them safe inside your suitcase.
You can use them for underwear, boxes of crayons or colouring pencils, flash-drives or little toys.
You will need:
3 x 50g balls of white dk yarn
1 x 50g ball of orange dk yarn
DVD PLAYER COVER (KNIT TWO)
Using 4mm knitting needles and white dk yarn cast on 50 stitches
Knit 20 rows of stocking stitch
Change to orange yarn
Knit 10 rows of stocking stitch
Change to white yarn
Knit 80 rows of stocking stitch
Change to orange yarn
Knit 2 rows of garter stitch
Knit 2 rows of stocking stitch
Knit 4 rows of garter stitch
Cast off
TO MAKE UP
Sew bottom and side seams together using over-sew stitch with right sides together
Crochet 110 chains into a length of orange yarn and thread it along the channel at the top of the bag
Tie the ends of the loop together
ACCESSORIES BAG (KNIT TWO)
Using 4mm knitting needles and white dk yarn cast on 30 stitches
Knit 12 rows of stocking stitch
Change to orange yarn
Knit 6 rows of stocking stitch
Change to white yarn
Knit 36 rows of stocking stitch
Change to orange yarn
Knit 2 rows of garter stitch
Knit 2 rows of stocking stitch
Knit 2 rows of garter stitch
Cast off
TO MAKE UP
Sew bottom and side seams together using over-sew stitch with right sides together
Crochet 80 chains into a length of orange yarn and thread it along the channel at the top of the bag
Tie the ends of the loop together
PACKING POUCH BASE (KNIT ONE)
Using 4mm knitting needles and orange dk yarn cast on 30 stitches
Knit 40 rows of stocking stitch
Cast off
PACKING POUCH SIDES (KNIT FOUR)
Using 4mm knitting needles and orange dk yarn cast on 30 stitches
Knit 4 rows of garter stitch
Change to white yarn
Knit 10 rows of stocking stitch
Change to orange yarn
Knit 6 rows of stocking stitch
Change to white yarn
Knit 36 rows of stocking stitch
Change to orange yarn
Knit 2 rows of garter stitch
Knit 2 rows of stocking stitch
Knit 2 rows of garter stitch
Cast off
TO MAKE UP
Sew sides to bottom and then side seams together using over-sew stitch with right sides together
Crochet 200 chains into a length of orange yarn and thread it along the channel at the top of the bag
Tie the ends of the loop together
If you wanted to make a few bags to use in your suitcase you could change the colours around.
Please note that the material on this blog is for personal use and for use in classrooms only.
It is a copyright infringement and, therefore, illegal under international law to sell items made with these patterns.
Use of the toys and projects is at your own risk.
©Christina Sinclair Designs 2015
Quick Quiz Answers
- a boat to take a holiday on – cruise ships
- a boat that goes backwards and forwards on a stretch a water – a ferry
- a ship that carries oil – a tanker or oil tanker
- a ship that carries goods – a cargo ship or merchant ship
- a boat to show tourists coral reefs – a glass-bottomed boat
Cargo ship laden with containers
I don’t usually write comments but this blog just really stands out from the crowd. Wow! Love it!
Well, I am very glad you did write in. Thank you for your kind comment Justine.