rope fender

In their early years of service both the ferries carried rope fenders to protect the strakes.

More historically compelling are the images of people at work - the boatswain fabricating a massive rope fender, or women factory workers building an airplane wing.

A dozen or more of the wide-beamed Murgo ships were moored to the quays, bumping against woven rope fenders as gangs of slaves unloaded them.

Grunting in unison, they began taking back the ground they had yielded, and the ship slowly drew toward the rain-slicked pier as men aboard dropped bundled rope fenders over the side to protect the hull.

A hundred types of hull, so many they were moored in rows, rose and fell and rubbed against rope fenders in the gentle swell, like great sea beasts scratching their flanks in idleness.