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They are to be fastened at one end to the round ship and are intended to be dropped, with their ponderous spiked ends, into the deck of an enemy ship, thus nailing, or fastening, the ships together. - (Raiders of Gor, Chapter 17, Sentence #65)

Besides having large numbers of unchained, armed men in their rowing holds, these round ships, moreover, were, below decks, and in the turrets and the stem and stern castles, crowded with armed, able-bodied men, citizens of Port Kar who had swarmed aboard, that they might fight. There were crews on these ships armed with grappling irons and each of the ships carried two or more "grappling bridges". These resemble sturdy, heavy gangplanks, some five feet in width, with a heavy spike or nail, some two feet in length and some four inches in width, on the underside. They are to be fastened at one end to the round ship and are intended to be dropped, with their ponderous spiked ends, into the deck of an enemy ship, thus nailing, or fastening, the ships together. The round ship has a substantially higher freeboard area than the ram-ship, which is lower, and so this boarding arrangement is feasible. Commonly, of course, it is the round ship, with her normally small, free crews, which attempts to evade boarding. But now I expected, to the surprise of attacking ram-ships which might attempt to board them, they would find themselves boarded, and their decks overwhelmed with swarms of armed, free men. - (Raiders of Gor)