What did they use as a buffer for docking boats before there were tires?

I don’t know what it’s called, if there is indeed a name for it, but almost every dock has tires fastened to it in some manner, presumably to keep the boats that dock from getting damaged. I was on a fishing vessel in the San Diego harbor earlier today and I even saw a boat which was flanked all the way around with tires. It got me wondering, what was used before there were tires?

I’m not exactly sure when boats were first used, but I am certain it was many centuries ago, and it seems to me that rubber came about around 1 century ago (give or take). Did they just let the boats get messed up, or did they have some more “natural” buffering material.