When a cargo ship arrives at port, it doesn’t just pull up and start unloading. It needs to secure a parking spot first. In the shipping world, we call this parking spot a berth.

For various shipping operations at harbor and ports such as loading and unloading cargoes, dry docking and many other operations the vessel is align with the berth, securing it with ropes and mooring lines. 

In shipping, mooring is the process of securing a vessel to a fixed or floating structure, preventing it from drifting or moving freely. This is achieved using mooring lines (ropes or wires) attached to various points like docks, piers, bollards, or even other vessels. Mooring is essential for safe loading and unloading operations, as well as for maintaining the vessel's position in harbors and other locations. Traditionally this is done by attaching a vessel to the jetty or piers by strong nylon ropes. Mooring ensure the ship a secure and stable position in specific area. But it is observed that due rough weather conditions, strong winds and high tides ship rolls and pitches even if it is tightly secured. As a result of this, loading and unloading operation becomes very time consuming and difficult. Very bad weather conditions sometimes are responsible to break the ropes resulting into accidents.

We propose here a hydraulic system for berthing a vessel at the jetty for loading, unloading and other operations. As ship enters for berthing area, hydraulic system automatically starts to hold the ship from both starboard and port side (right and left side) of the hull. At least it needs to be locked at three places namely fore, aft and in the middle of the hull. As shown in the image, a vessel entering the jetty for berthing gets lock with strong outer hydraulic brakes (hydraulic press) in the middle part of the hull and holds and stabilize the vessel without rolling and pitching. This ensures very stable vessel position. Even in bad weather condition, high tides and wind a vessel remain stable making safe loading and unloading operations. Strong, long and thick nylon ropes are not necessary to hold and stable the ship at the port if this hydraulic press is implemented in the future.