Hi Norman,
Just reading the thread you wrote with regard to relieving by basket in the North Sea, talk about Tarzan films and also towing the LB27, and other MacDermott, Brown and Route, ETPM barges etc to and from Antwerp and around the North Sea, in the mid 70`s. I myself was with Seaspan as were a few of the United Towing lads at that time. My lasting memory of the DB22, Barge Capt Eustas Champaine, was her dropping the bridge from the storage tank to the jacket as they were just starting to build Ekofiske. I was mate on the Zeus at that point with a Capt Bill Spry from LA, we were laid along side the barge when she dropped the bridge (a 200ton lift) collapsing the boom, which was hung over the side and trailing on the sea bed. There was a mass exodus from the barge, with the Portugues deck crew along with quite a few Americans jumping from the barge to the deck of the Zeus & Sea Flyer, we had approximatly 140 od cases of broken bones etc. Anyway we got the job of taking the barge into Rotterdam "with the boom still trailing" (from Ekofiske to Rotterdam via circuitous route (impossible to achieve today), trying to miss pipe lines etc) something which would cause an outrage today just for mentioning to try it, not to mention the harbour authorities Rotterdam agreeing to it, probably take them three weeks and a heart transplant to get over the suggestion. "Oh!! Happy Days".