Berth

In its most common sense a berth is the specific location at which a ship ties up in a port to work its cargo or handle passengers. It may be a length of quay or wharf along the shore, a jetty or pier projecting into the water, a dolphin structure, or a buoy or offshore mooring, and it is equipped for the trade it serves, with cranes and open storage for general cargo, gantry cranes and yards for containers, loading arms and pipelines for oil and gas, ramps for Ro-Ro traffic, or terminals for passengers. Berths are a scarce and valuable resource in a busy port, which is why ships often wait at anchor for one to become free and why laytime and demurrage clauses govern the time a chartered ship spends working at its berth.

Getting a ship into and out of a berth (berthing and unberthing) is a demanding piece of ship handling, usually carried out with the help of a pilot and often with tugs to push and pull the ship the last distance and hold it against wind and current. Once alongside, the ship is secured with mooring lines led to bollards ashore, arranged so that it is held firmly against the movement of tide, passing traffic and weather, and the mooring is tended and adjusted as conditions and the ship's draft change during cargo work.

The word berth carries two other meanings in maritime use. Aboard ship a berth is a sleeping place, a bunk, and by extension a person's job on a ship — a seafarer speaks of getting a berth on a vessel. In navigation, to give something a wide berth means to keep a generous distance from a hazard or another vessel, a usage that has passed into everyday language. All three senses share the underlying idea of a place assigned to a ship, whether alongside, in the accommodation, or in the sea room a prudent mariner keeps around dangers.