They also appear to operate numbers of what we call daughter craft, and have rescued more than 4000 people. 21/2/12

At the time of the 2013 review I realise that I may have got the whole thing wrong. The ship photographed here is part of the Spanish coastal anti-pollution and rescue service, which has a large number of vessels in its fleet. I am spending a bit of time trying to sort this out. If possible I will identify the vessels which are anchor-handlers. In addition there are a couple of what might be called standby vessels, although they don't quite fit exactly into that role. Anyone in Spain can see these ships every other night on the TV delivering people from Africa to the Canaries when their boats have sunk in the Atlantic.