{{Short description|Deck-fitting on a ship or boat, and used to secure ropes}} thumb|Shipboard bitts thumb|Shoreside bitts '''Bitts''' are paired vertical wooden or metal posts mounted either aboard a ship or on a wharf, pier, or quay. The posts are used to secure mooring lines, ropes, hawsers, or cables.<ref name=amk>{{cite book |last=Knight |first=Austin M. |author-link =Austin M. Knight |title =Modern Seamanship |publisher =D. Van Nostrand Company |edition =Tenth |date =1937 |location =New York |pages =783 }}</ref> Bitts aboard wooden sailing ships (sometime called cable-bitts) were large vertical timbers mortised into the keel and used as the anchor cable attachment point.<ref>{{cite book |last =Keegan |first =John |author-link =John Keegan |title =The Price of Admiralty |publisher =Viking |date =1989 |location =New York |page =[https://archive.org/details/priceofadmiralty00keeg/page/n307 276] |isbn =0-670-81416-4 |url-access =registration |url =https://archive.org/details/priceofadmiralty00keeg }}</ref> Bitts are carefully manufactured and maintained to avoid any sharp edges that might chafe and weaken the mooring lines.<ref>{{cite book |last=Manning |first=George Charles |title =Manual of Naval Architecture |publisher =D. Van Nostrand Company |date =1930 |location =New York |pages =158 }}</ref>

==Use== Mooring lines may be laid around the bitts either singly or in a figure-8 pattern with the friction against tension increasing with each successive turn. As a verb ''bitt'' means to take another turn increasing the friction to slow or adjust a mooring ship's relative movement.<ref name=amk/>

Mooring fixtures of similar purpose: * A bollard is a single vertical post useful to receive a spliced loop at the end of a mooring line.<ref name=amk/> * A cleat has horizontal horns.<ref>Knight, p.788</ref>

==References== {{reflist}}

{{Commons Category|Bitts}}

{{Sail Types}} {{Sailing ship elements}}

Category:Watercraft components