Carnival cruise liner Carnival Splendor was left drifting helplessly about 55 miles off the Baja California coast after being disabled by an engine-room fire on 8, November 2010, with 3,299 passengers and 1,167 crew on board. Fortunately powerful sea-going tugs, among them the tugboat SMBC Monterrey, stationed not far away at the Costa Azul, Mexico, LNG terminal, were on hand to help tow the stricken Carnival Cruise liner to San Diego. Indeed the tow made such rapid progress that it was possible to disembark the unhappy passengers on US soil instead of the nearest Mexican port of refuge.Towing the giant 113,300 gt, 952 ft cruise liner, would pose problems for many tugboats, especially in Pacific Ocean swells, but not for the powerful SMBC Monterrey, built in the UNV shipyard in Valencia, Spain, around Markey Machinery's DESDF-48WF high-speed, 760-hp double drum waterfall-type electric hawser winch.According to the online Maritime Reporter in August 2009 in an article 'Push and Pull', t... [More]