Widow Makers

Some pieces of equipment in the Offshore are called like that. On anchor handling tugs, the old fashioned steel circular- and cylinder shaped steel pennant buoys are the widow makers number one. A vessel is always moving and it takes almost nothing to let those buoys start rolling on your deck. When they start moving, you also have a lot of wires, chains and anchors on deck to keep an eye to. All kinds of obstacles preventing you from running for a safe place. The circular buoys are the worst, because of their unpredictable direction of moving, but the cylinder shape types like you see on this picture are feared also. Twenty years ago they were replaced by cubical super buoys of super plastic. No more rodeo riding on your aft deck. Perfectly safe and at least 100% improvement in making your aft deck safer during anchor handling. But nevertheless; you still see those widow makers. These Korean ones are quite big; they have a floatation force of 19 tons.