  Providing a stable connectivity in maritime communications is of utmost
importance to unleash the full potential of smart ports. Nonetheless, due to
the crowded nature of harbor environments, it is likely that some ships are
shadowed by others, resulting in reduced received power that subsequently
diminishes their data rates-even threatens basic connectivity requirements.
Given that uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs) have been regarded as an integral
part of future generations of wireless communication networks, they can be
employed in maritime communications as well. In this paper, we investigate the
use of UAV-mounted relays in order to help mitigate the reduced data rates of
blocked links in maritime communications. Various communication architectures
are considered based on the positioning mechanism of the UAV; in this regard,
fixed, k-means algorithm-based, and landing spot-based positioning approaches
are examined. Additionally, since UAVs are predominantly battery-operated, the
energy consumption performances of these approaches are also measured. Results
reveal that the landing spot-based UAV relay positioning approach finds the
best trade-off between the data rate and energy consumption.
