One of the most popular activities for ships at sea is to replenish supplies. I forget the name of the designation for the supply ship but its goal is to get next to your ship and shoot a line across to the ship being supplied.
A short thin rope is attached to the projectile that is shot from the supply ship. It usually works on the first try, even in inclement weather. A heavier rope, normally the size that is used for tieing a ship to the dock. I may be wrong but this is from a memory of observing the process a few times.
Usually, both ships have booms that support the winches that are used to move the pallets of supplies, which include refrigerated and dry gooods. The process takes a few hours and includes a good portion of the staff of the ship and the Marines. Literally, hundreds of boxes are handled during this process.
I'm sorry for the clarity for this pictures but this is as good a quality that I can get with my present computer. In addition to supplies being highlined from one ship to another, there are times when a person is highlined from one ship to another ship. Our LSD had a helo but often times the ship where the person is coming from or going to does not have a landing deck and the highlining method is used.
In the above picture, a naval officer is being highlined from one ship to another ship. I had an occasion where I might have been highlined due a finger infection which had became gangrene. I had a bad infection and my finger was swollen and had to be sliced open by the ship's surgeon. He had told me that if he knew how bad the infection was, that he might have had me highlined to the hospital ship. I was happy that it didn't happen because on some highling operations, there were heavy seas and the person getting highlined got soaked a few times.
This is how the ships are fuled whule at seas utilizing the same highlining process, but fuel is transferred from thr taner top each ship while at sea. These pictures show the sea when it is relativly calm but there are times when the highlining process takes place and there are heavy seas.
This is the USS Rushmore LSD-14 and I spent most of my time on board an LSD type of ship. The beauty about this ship is that it is a Landing Ship Dock and carries a limited crew of Sailors and Marines.
The ship has ballast tanks that allows water to enter via the rear door of the ship which opens out. This allows the LSD to carry in its belly, several smaller crafts called LCMs that carry heavy equipment and tanks for the assorted Marine landings during field exercise. That I'll cover in another blog.