Six types of commonly used workboats
Do you know anything about workboats? Workboats play a very important role in the marine industry. Workboats can generally be divided into tugboats, pilot boats, icebreaker ships, supply ships, research vessels and fireboats. Let us introduce these commonly used work boats one by one.
- Tugboats
Tugboats, also known as “towboats”, are vessels designed to tow ships or other floating bodies on the water.
Its hull is smaller but more powerful, and it does not carry cargo or passengers. Ocean tugs can carry out towing and transportation operations in corresponding navigation areas and can perform rescue missions; inland river tugs mainly perform towing operations on inland rivers; harbor tugs mainly operate in the harbor, such as assisting large ships to dock and leave docks, enter and exit docks, etc.
- Pilot Boats
The pilot vessel is a water transportation vehicle specifically designed to transport pilots. According to international practice, foreign ships entering and leaving a port must apply for pilotage from the port pilot agency. This is not only a need to safeguard national sovereignty and national defense security, but also to ensure safe navigation of ships, improve port operation efficiency, and maintain navigation order.
- Icebreaker Ships
The icebreaker is workboat that breaks up ice with the aid of gravity and kinetic energy of their hulls, or by other means, to open up a channel for other ships to pass through the ice.
- Supply Ships
The supply ship is the ship that provides maintenance services or supply materials and equipment to military and civilian ships or offshore facilities.
The supply ship has a displacement of several thousand tons to tens of thousands of tons, a endurance of several thousand nautical miles to more than 10,000 nautical miles, and a self-sufficiency of more than 90 days and nights, which can enable the ship to reduce its dependence on fixed bases and increase its combat radius and mobility.
- Research Vessels
Research vessels are divided into two categories: geophysical exploration vessels and polar expedition ship. The geophysical exploration vessel is the ship that conducts surveys and research on marine oil, gas and other mineral resource. The polar expedition ship is specialized scientific research vessel dedicated to conducting marine surveys and expeditions in the South and Arctic seas.
- Fireboats
The fireboat is the vessel used to extinguish fires on ships or on the shore of harbors.
The fireboat is painted red and is easily identifiable from its appearance. The fireboat has a high speed, good seakeeping and good maneuverability, allowing the ship to perform fire-fighting tasks in narrow waterways or crowded ports. The ship is equipped with fire-fighting equipment such as high-power water pump systems, high-pressure water spray guns and fire extinguishing agents, as well as ambulance personnel and medical equipment.
