Hope FSM doesn’t get too upset by this plug,but I’ve been buying old Model Ship Wright quarterlies and boy are they great sources. For instance I’d read in a Patrick O’brien novels about the dutch use of ship camels. There was contemporary drawings and completed models and full explanation of their use. Esoteric at best since the practice stopped in the 1820’s but interesting none the less. I see on ABE books that there are some 450 examples of these publications. By the way a ship camel was a sort of drydock to move deep draft sailing vessels in shallow waters. Also there were shallow draft sailboats called waterships that were used as tugs for these things. I’m trying to imagine the skill it must have taken to use a sailing ship to tow another. I have some experience with sailboats and I’ve got a lot of respect for those Hollanders of days of yore.
Modern camels are used to keep a ship’s hull away from the pier while moored. I didn’t know about the antique type.