Danbooru

Tag discussion: pier vs. dock

Posted under General

I would call post #1104032 a jetty and a pier, but definitely not a dock.

  • Pier - a one-ended bridge extending into the water. Victorian Britain had a lot of large piers with amusement parks on them and had nothing to do with ships. Doesn't have to have anything to do with ships.
  • Jetty - a (usually small) pier or thin peninsula sticking out into the water that ships can be tied to. A pier that ships can dock at is also a jetty.
  • Dock - a structure designed to fit (usually large) ships in for hull repair (drydock) or passenger/cargo transfer. You can spot a cargo dock by the large water-side cranes. 2 jetties can form a dock if they're designed to fit one (and only one) ship between them. Just because a ship can dock to something does not make it a dock.
  • Harbour - sheltered region of a coast can be natural or artificial. Has nothing to do with ships, only it's shape matters.
  • Port - Usually a coastal town, usually has one or more harbours. Has everything to do with ships.

Updated

I'm more familiar with the other usage of Jetty:

Jetty - a structure extended into a sea, lake, or river to influence the current or tide or to protect a harbor.

These are the things you'd see at outlets, particularly to prevent silt from long shore drift from filling the entrance. Example

Back to the main question, I'd say pier =/= dock.

NWF_Renim said:
Jetty - a structure extended into a sea, lake, or river to influence the current or tide or to protect a harbor.

Serlo said:
Huh, maybe there's some usage difference here. I'd definitely call this a jetty and you can clearly see it has nothing to do with current flow and is definitely there to tie ships to and get access to.

Both are valid.
But the former performs as wave breaker while the latter is the landing pier (this is widely referred as 'jetty' in tourism).

So we stick with the descriptions I gave above (which I've now added to the wiki pages)?

Edit: As well, the ship and boat wikis are humorously short at the moment.

Ship: Boat.
Boat: Something that floats in the water and can fit people.

Updated

I'd agree that pier != dock.

Wave breaker wouldn't be a good description, since it is perpendicular to the coast and doesn't prevent waves from hitting the shore. It is a sediment catcher and a barrier that alters the longshore current, forcing the current that runs down the coast further out to sea, while catching material that is coming down the current. It's like a groyne, another coastal management structure, though the purpose of a groyne is beach sediment retention, while a jetty is to prevent sediment build up at the opening to rivers and harbors.

Is there not a better term that can be used instead of jetty? The images currently under jetty all seem like they'd fit just fine under only pier, and thus allowing us to leave the tag empty.

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