Harbour Towage Operations
Ship assist as a port service: make fast, tug positions, push pull working, the pilot and tug master interface, and let go.
Harbour towage is the assistance a tug gives a ship inside port limits: holding, pushing, pulling, turning and escorting during arrival, shifting and departure. It is contracted separately from ocean towage and in the United Kingdom it runs on the UK Standard Conditions for Towage and Other Services rather than on a BIMCO form.
The tug master does not control the assisted vessel’s speed through the water, which is why the master and pilot exchange and the pilot and tug exchange are treated as safety critical. MAIB report 17/2024 found that speed above the port’s recommended 2 to 3 knots put towline loads two to five times higher on the tug it capsized, and NTSB report MIR-23-15 found a tug attempting a bow to bow makeup at 9.7 knots against its own company’s 7 knot limit.
The full article will cover tug positions and lead angles, made fast against push pull against lassoing, the order of moves in berthing and unberthing, VHF discipline and the passing of orders, weather ceilings, and how a port builds and publishes a towage matrix.