The use of cranes to transfer heavy goods between ships and land enabled wooden machines to replace human labor. Shipboard cargo gear does not count as a harbor crane, but it was in use throughout the entire early modern period to unload large cargo ships outside harbor approaches that were too shallow. In antiquity, mobile cranes had been installed in harbors when needed. The first stationary harbor cranes were built in the first half of the 13th century in harbors from Norway to Fland…