A friend and I have been having an ongoing debate for years. We were at a pub on a wharf, watching shipping container ships and cruise ships come into dock, and he posed the question. With no wind, no waves, perfect conditions, could he move the ship at all?
In: Planetary Science
There’s actually a competition in strongman circles called the [boat pull](https://youtu.be/507YvqWktTc?si=G5I5RVCxWFcUdPTn). I believe the boat they use is around 13 tons, which isn’t that big of a boat compared to the thousands of tons beheamoths like cargo and military vessels (especially big military ships as they’re armored, which significantly increases mass, thus friction from the water. Note that these dudes in the video are professional strongmen, with a honed technique for the boat pull competition. Note that a lot of power is coming from them pushing their legs against a solid wall, and not by standing freely or using their arms. They’re using *a lot* of energy to move that relatively small boat (compared to a container ship), and those dudes are *professionals*. If they have to exert themselves that hard for a 13 ton boat, they’re hopelessly outmatched against anything that’s multitudes larger, heavier, and displaces more water thus has more friction to combat.
This is anecdotal, but when I was in Boy Scouts, we did a trip called “Sea Base” at which you sail about the Florida Keys on (in our case) 40 ft. schooners. I, being the strongest in the group (sorry to brag) was tasked with making sure the boat didn’t hit the dock while we docked. My god, it was one of the most exhausting things I had ever done – and I was regularly weight training at the time. Every ounce of my strength was spent trying to keep a little ol 40ft. schooner from bumping the dock – and it still hit. Despite moving at a snails pace, it hit with enough force that the wooden decking on the aft started to compress and pop up.
Boats, yo. They’re heavy.
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