POSTING ON SHELL BLOG BY “OUTSIDER”
Dry towing a drillship? Something must be very seriously wrong. And when the Kulluk comes out of the water the damage to the hull will be clear for all to see – look forward to seeing the photographs!
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The practice of dry towing is used when a vessel is transported on the deck of a heavy lift vessel.
For the Kulluk, this will expose the damaged underside for all to see. Dry towing of the Kulluk makes sense because the speed of the heavy lift vessel is 2-3 times faster than could be achieved with a conventional tow.
Dry towing of the Discoverer is somewhat unusual because the drillship should have been capable of sailing under its own steam at about the same speed as a heavy lift transport vessel. The use of a dry tow implies that the vessel is unseaworthy. Perhaps the Discoverer was more seriously damaged when it went aground last summer than Shell admitted? Or perhaps the recent explosion was more than just a “backfire”?
It’s a pity the exclusion zone will prevent anyone taking photographs when the vessels are lifted out of the water.
If you look at Google images, you’ll find plenty of examples of heavy lift dry tows. There are comparatively few examples of large ships being dry towed, but a well-publicised case was the USS Cole (heading photo above) after it was attacked in harbour. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Cole_bombing for example.
Royal Dutch Shell conspired directly with Hitler, financed the Nazi Party, was anti-Semitic and sold out its own Dutch Jewish employees to the Nazis. Shell had a close relationship with the Nazis during and after the reign of Sir Henri Deterding, an ardent Nazi, and the founder and decades long leader of the Royal Dutch Shell Group. His burial ceremony, which had all the trappings of a state funeral, was held at his private estate in Mecklenburg, Germany. The spectacle (photographs below) included a funeral procession led by a horse drawn funeral hearse with senior Nazis officials and senior Royal Dutch Shell directors in attendance, Nazi salutes at the graveside, swastika banners on display and wreaths and personal tributes from Adolf Hitler and Reichsmarschall, Hermann Goring. Deterding was an honored associate and supporter of Hitler and a personal friend of Goring.
Deterding was the guest of Hitler during a four day summit meeting at Berchtesgaden. Sir Henri and Hitler both had ambitions on Russian oil fields. Only an honored personal guest would be rewarded with a private four day meeting at Hitler’s mountain top retreat.
IN JULY 2007, MR BILL CAMPBELL (ABOVE, A RETIRED GROUP AUDITOR OF SHELL INTERNATIONAL SENT AN EMAIL TO EVERY UK MP AND MEMBER OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS: 
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A head-cut image of Alfred Donovan (now deceased) appears courtesy of The Wall Street Journal.
