Preparing to drop out of light speed."
"Nice flying, Wedge. Right on _target."
"Whoah! Much closer and we wouldn't need a docking clamp.Wedge Antilles and Luke Skywalker
A docking clamp or docking claw was a device that starships used to attach themselves to other ships as a means for ships to latch onto one another, many times for boarding or for goods transfer purposes.
Docking clamps were capable of attaching themselves to another starship through mechanical and magnetic means, securely enough that the tremendous forces of sublight was not enough to dislodge the other ship. These features were often taken advantage of by customs patrol ships, such as the Rendili StarDrives Imperial customs corvette, for boarding action purposes, as well as by The Sabertooth-class assault/rescue vessels, which used docking clamps and tractor beam grappling systems to forcibly move starships off the battlefield.
In a famous example during the Galactic Civil War, the Rebel Captain Han Solo used the Millennium Falcon's docking clamp to hide the ship on an Imperial-class Star Destroyer.
The Viscount-class Star Defender was equipped with multiple docking clamps, allowing it to dock with multiple capital ships simultaneously, making it one of the largest known ships to have docking clamps.
The Twilight was among the vessels to be equipped with docking clamps.
Appearances
- Star Wars: The Old Republic: Knights of the Fallen Empire
- The Clone Wars 2
- The Last Jedi
- The Hutt Gambit
- Han Solo at Stars' End (First mentioned) (as docking tackle)
- Scavenger Hunt (as docking claw)
- "The Capture of Imperial Hazard" — Star Wars Adventure Journal 10 (also reprinted in Hyperspace: The Official Star Wars Fan Club) (as docking claw)
- Star Wars: Episode V The Empire Strikes Back (First appearance)
- "Drone Alone" — Star Wars Comic 10 (Mentioned only)
- Legacy (2006) 10
Sources
- "The Pentastar Alignment" — Star Wars Adventure Journal 3 (as docking claw)
- Shadows of the Empire Sourcebook (as docking claw)
- "The Pentastar Alignment" — Classic Adventures: Volume Four — The Best of the Journal (as docking claw)
- The Far Orbit Project
- Star Wars: Episode I Incredible Cross-Sections
- Star Wars: Age of Rebellion Core Rulebook
- Lords of Nal Hutta