I was on the "James No.95" during the summer of 1967, she was a hopper barge which had been converted to a gravel finding vessel, we pottered along the South Coast taking gravel samples from the seabed and below the seabed using a large fancy air lift type gizmo (the name of which will come back to me, in the middle of the night !) It consisted of sections of approx 24" pipe, with inner pipes through which high pressure water and compressed air were pumped, in the centre was a discharge pipe, the theory was that the air/HP water mix altered the density of the product at the bottom if the pipe, and up through the centre came a steady flow of whatever material was on the bottom. It worked very well, we took samples, and bagged them every few feet of penetration, when the hold was getting a bit full, the wedges were knocked out, the bottom opened, and we started again. We also went up to the Mersey and did a lot of testing in the entrance channel, there it was a lot hairier, we had to moor fore and aft, using wires down aft, with tug assistance, quite exciting in the strong tidal currents up there. We also went to Denmark, sourcing good load bearing sand for Copenhagen Airport. I was also on the "Rockstone" for a while. James Dredging at that time, was part of Westminster Dredging, which in turn was part of the Bos & Kalis Group, hence the Dutchmen mentioned earlier. It was certainly an eye opener for me on the 95, we all, including the Master, lived in the forecastle. If you wanted the engine to go astern, you had to give plenty of notice, something like one to two minutes, this made the trip through the Kiel Canal doubly interesting, we managed not to hit anything, but, on occasions it was a close run thing. Also had to pay for your grub in those days, something like 30/- each man to the cook, if he could'nt manage on that, the skipper would sack him. Happy Days !!!