KC Irving ,in the early 50s, took over the assets of a man named
Wilson. Wilson, along with owning the 2nd largest dry dock in the world had the contract to provide "tug boat" services to the harbour of Saint John.
My brother ended up a radio officer on the
Irving Birch- at the time the largest, most powerful tug on the eastern seaboard. The Dutch came up with some super-duper boats that could come over from Holland faster than the Birch could arrive from New Brunswick - so they usually lost any races where they salivated for salvage, but that did not stop the attempts.
(The tug itself had quite a history - it was designed to "tug" the Mulberry Harbours
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mulberry_Harbour to Normandy.)
After one rather rough trip on the high seas he brough back some pictures .... the only part of the boat not covered by the swells was the bridge (the boat's bridge, not one like in the photos) - and that was mostly awash.
Bro did admit that a bit of the 'ol :sick was rampant even among long experienced sailors.
