[HO455]

One of the other folks at work took these photos of a pair of our tugs tightening a newly installed line on the ship winch. It is almost impossible to see but there is a line/rope connecting the two tugs bow to bow.

First photo is just after they hooked the line from the tug on the left (with the new line) to the tug on the right. Then the tugs back away from each other until the new line only has 2 or 3 wraps on the winch drum. Then they pull away from each other while slowly winding the winch in. This stretches the line and seats it down hard onto the drum. The deck hands work with the line as it winds in to keep in laying tight against the previously laid wrap of line.

The idea is to get the wraps of line as tight and close as possible so when the next layer of line goes on top it won't pull down through the layer below. The lines are expected to pull 50 plus tons so there is a lot of force trying to pull the line through the lower layers. Sometimes it takes 2 or 3 times to get this process properly done.