Warping is throwing an anchor either manually for a small ship or by rowing the anchor out and dropping it farther away for a larger ship. Then the ship would reel it to change position. Good for maneuvering in harbor. Etymologically related to “throwing” and essentially threading a needle across the sea.
Warp factor get you asses in the rowboat. Engage.
Would love to hear an expert talk be about this more. It’s an interesting idea, but seems like it would be limited in usefulness to small adjustments.
I stumbled on it when figuring out just how the hell tall ships docked and undocked without tugs. Turns out they did use tugs in the form of rowboats but they also extensively used shoreside rigging and warping.
I guess it would be valuable in shallow water, less useful in the deep ocean, and overall better than being stuck in one place!
Yeah me too. I tried searching around but it’s hard to find something that’s not sci-fi related about this topic. It might also be called “kledging” from what I read, but not sure if that’s the exact same thing.