Suffolk, England

The Svitzer Intrepid Tug I have deliberately overexposed to give the effect of a ghost ship

For those interested in how the tugs 'hook up' to these large vessels, mv MSC Catania is just rounding the point at Landguard this is where the North Sea meets the Stour Estuary, for vessels this size usually two tugs attach a line forward and aft.

The first picture the aft tug is already attached to the vessel, the forward tug is still to attach a line, the jetty I am on enables me to be as close as possible to the vessels where they pass the Fort buoys

You will see a crewman on The Catania throwing a line and a loop to the hauser where the cabling then comes into play going from a slack to a taut line, these hausers are wound steel and under tension have a breaking strain so if it snapped the cable would snake like a 'sidewinder' and do irreparable damage to a human being











The vessel is 'dead slow' at this point and then is under the total control of the tug skippers, here you see a slack rope until the steel hauser 'kicks in' on the tug winch, Svitzer tugs are owned by The Maersk shipping company of Denmark