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A ship's cradle is a support for a ship that is dry docked.
Sometimes the whole support is called "cradle", sometimes each section of this support is called cradle. The cradle can be standing on the dock floor or the cradle can be equipped with wheels so that the ship, standing upon its cradle can be transported from the dry docking installation to a parking area.
For smaller boats, the cradle is equipped with rubber wheels, for larger and more heavy ships, the cradle is equipped with steel rail wheels.
Most cradles with steel wheels can only be transported in the longitudinal direction of the cradle. The empty cradle that is shown here is equipped with wheels that can be rotated in the transverse direction, so that the ship can be transported also over rails in the transverse direction.
The fishing boat can also be transported in the longitudinal as well as the transverse direction. In this case a transverse carriage is used between the cradle and the rails on the shipyard.
