Most general cargo ships, especially older ones, have derricks as their lifting appliance.

Most of the derricks have a lifting capacity varying between 3 tons to 15 tons and designed to load a general cargo ship with cargo up to that capacity weight. Some times it may become necessary to lift very heavy cargoes like machinery parts and these may weigh much more than 15 tons and may even be in the region of a few hundred tons. For these purposes heavy lift derricks are used.

 One method of loading and discharging cargo is using the ship's derricks. All derricks are basically same except for different topping arrangements. The basic features are: A boom that is attached to a mast or a Samson post by means of a Gooseneck. It swivels at the gooseneck and can be hoisted or lowered by means of a topping lift. The head of the derrick is supported by the topping lift. Generally there are two wire guys attached to rope purchases meant for either swinging the derrick or to prevent it from swinging. A cargo runner is a wire from a winch that is rove through a block at the heel and the head of the derrick and attached to a cargo hook. A preventer guy is a wire attached to the head of the derrick which may be connected to a short length of chain. This is only used when the derricks are used in the Union Purchase arrangement. A strong and good wire must be used for this as the parting of preventer guy during cargo operations using Union Purchase is the major cause of accidents (In a Union Purchase the preventer guy takes all the transverse load that comes on the derrick)