Getting a line onboard a vessel in rescuing at sea?

[Anthony Appleyard]

Please, do any of you have any good images of the gun that fires a rocket that trails a line, sometimes used in getting a line onboard a vessel in rescuing at sea? What is it correctly called?

(Google search was swamped with irrelevantia.)

 

[Mr Efficiency]

Hawill's Catalog-Catagories http://www.hawills.com/lineguns.html

 

[ImaginaryNumber]

You could Google Line Throwing Rocket or Line Throwing Gun, and select IMAGES.

If the above line-thrower isn't what you were looking for, perhaps you will like the line-thrower below.

 

[Anthony Appleyard]

Thanks.

 

[Ike]

They are simply called Line Throwing Guns. The Navy uses a 45 caliber one that looks like a large pistol and the Coast Guard uses a 30 caliber one that looks like a rifle, but has no rifling in the barrel. Both work fine, but contrary to their advertising, unless you like getting kicked by a mule, it is better to brace the butt on the deck when firing it. They throw a projectile with a line attached. The projectiles come in various weights. The line is simply a small diameter nylon line which is sent over (the messenger) and then tied to a much larger line and used to pull the large line across. Be reminded, these things are guns. They can be dangerous. Make sure no one is in the line of sight when you shoot. Sounds simple, but I have seen the projectiles go right through a plexiglass window. On a windy day the projectile may not go where you aimed it.

However if you want to be really cool, find yourself a Lyle Gun (most of them are in museums) They are a little cannon that was used to shoot a line to ships caught in the surf. Lyle gun - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyle_gun