But it is the Dutch, for some reason or other, who have specialised more than any other country in the towing industry, and they own the largest and finest tugs in the world. The reason for this national development I attribute partly to the nature of the coastline between Germany and France, with its series of nasty sandbanks and shoals always ready to pick a ship up; partly, also, to the numerous straightways with frequently a foul wind. In either case there is plenty of opportunity for the tug to go out and earn a living. [Illustration: THE 7,000 TON FLOATING DRY-DOCK UNDER TOW BY THE “ROODE ZEE” AND “ZWARTE ZEE.” _From a Photograph. By permission of Messrs. L. Smit & Co., Rotterdam._] The finest fleet of ocean-going tugs is owned by Messrs. L. Smit and Company, of Rotterdam. Besides about a score of river and harbour craft, they have no fewer than ten bold ocean-tugs, which by reason of their high power and large bunker capacity are enabled to undertake towages to almost any part of the world. When the _Mauretania_ left the Tyne for her trial trip this company’s tugs, the _Ocean_ and the _Poolzee_, had her in tow at the bows. Tugs of this line have also accomplished such interesting long voyages as towing floating dry-docks from the Tyne to Trinidad; an obsolete Spanish warship from Ferrol to Swinemünde; the s.s. _Kronprinzessin Victoria_ from Las Palmas to Antwerp, after the liner had lost her propeller. When the old Inman liner _City of Rome_ was put aside, she was towed by the tug _Zwarte Zee_ from Greenock round to the Weser. The illustration facing this page shows the tugs _Roode Zee_ and the _Zwarte Zee_ taking in tow an enormous floating dock, capable of holding vessels up to 7,000 tons, from Wallsend on Tyne to Callao (Peru). To tow so unwieldy a thing as this for any distance at all is a pretty severe tax on a tug; but to take it all the way to Peru on the west coast of South America is about the utmost test which the most severe critic could ever impose. The distance is 10,260 nautical miles. One of the largest and most modern of this line’s tugs is the _Zwarte Zee_, which was launched in 1906. She resembles very closely the _Roode Zee_, seen in the foreground of the accompanying picture, and measures 164 feet long, 30 feet wide, 18 feet deep, and has the extraordinary high horse-power (indicated) of 1,500. It will be noticed that, like the _Blackcock_, she is well protected by her bridge deck amidships.