A wharf, quay, staith, or staithe is a structure on the shore of a harbour or on the bank of a river or canal where ships may dock to load and unload cargo or passengers. Such a structure includes one or more berths, and may also include piers, warehouses, or other facilities necessary for handling the ships. Wharves are often considered to be a series of docks at which boats are stationed. A marginal wharf is connected to the shore along its full length.
The Barbours Cut Terminal of the Port of Houston, US. This cargo shipping terminal has a single large wharf with multiple berths.
Wharf under construction on the Upper Mississippi in Fountain City, Wisconsin
Quay in Dublin, Ireland. The Irish language term cé is a borrowing from Anglo-Norman kay, cail.
Stereoscopic view of Long Wharf in Boston, United States, c. 19th century, jutting into Boston Harbor
A mooring is any permanent structure to which a seaborne vessel may be secured. Examples include quays, wharfs, jetties, piers, anchor buoys, and mooring buoys. A ship is secured to a mooring to forestall free movement of the ship on the water. An anchor mooring fixes a vessel's position relative to a point on the bottom of a waterway without connecting the vessel to shore. As a verb, mooring refers to the act of attaching a vessel to a mooring.
Mooring Post, Eisenhower Pier, Bangor, Northern Ireland
A dockworker places a mooring line on a bollard.
Mooring line of Polish ship Fryderyk Chopin.
Twenty foot diameter sheet pile cell mooring structure and five steel pipe pile tripods
