The Beurs World Trade Centre was an excellent venue for the indoor exhibition, with its stands manned by towage and salvage companies, shipbuilders, naval architects, equipment manufacturers and many other allied companies.

During breaks in the conference proceedings and evening receptions, this area gave delegates and visitors alike the opportunity to interact and undoubtedly carry out a great deal of business in a pleasant social environment. As with all recent ITS conventions, a model pool was provided in which Ron Burchett and his colleagues gave regular displays using excellent model tugs, many of which are used in research or training for the full-size towage industry.

Twenty-two papers were presented under the chairmanship Mike Allen, a partner at Curtis Davis Garrard, and a 'Technical Workshop' comprising a further six papers ran in parallel on the morning of the second day. Mike Allen has conducted proceedings at ITS conferences since the 14th convention in Seattle in 1996 and has become a popular chairman and an integral part of these events. The Technical Workshops chaired by Andy Smith, editor of International Tug & Salvage, covered a variety of technically oriented subjects whilst salvage and legal matters were being discussed in the main hall.

Proceedings were formally opened by Dr K M H Peijs, Minster of Transport for the Netherlands, who welcomed ITS back to Rotterdam after such a long break (the 5th Convention was held in Rotterdam) and reminded delegates of the country's history and the continued importance there of the towage and salvage industries. Her speech was followed by an inaugural paper from Hans van Rooij, current President of the International Salvage Union, reinforcing the message that salvors must continue to seek realistic remuneration if sensible levels of investment in plant and training are to remain viable. He also expressed worries about the danger of 'criminalisation' to salvors in general and that a new EU directive could exacerbate the problem. Hans van Roij also addressed matters related to Ports of Refuge, mentioning in particular the 'unhelpful' tendency to prevent the ship to ship transfer of oil and other pollutants in coastal waters.

Among the other papers related to salvage and emergency response was included a presentation by Robin Middleton, the UK Secretary of States representative (SOSREP) for salvage and intervention, and Bill Milwee, President of Milwee Associates in the USA, entitled 'Command & Control in Casualties'. This joint paper described in some detail interesting differences in the approach to a casualty occurring in the coastal waters of Britain and in the USA. The main fundamental difference is the mandatory requirement in the US for a shipowner/operator to contract a designated salvor and pre-planned response package before operating in American waters. Morgyn Davies, from the UK MOD, outlined 'Future Military Salvage Requirements' and David Krapf of Workboat magazine gave an emotive and visual first-hand presentation on the effects of Hurricane Katrina on New Orleans. The matter of criminalisation was forcefully highlighted again by Faz Peermohamed of Ince & Company. Entitled 'The Criminalisation Lottery - are salvors next on the hit list?', his presentation expressed a growing concern summarised by his statement that, 'The Prestige and Tasman Spirit incidents demonstrate that seafarers and salvors are vulnerable to an often politically motivated desire for a scapegoat.'

From a towage point of view, there was much to interest those from that sector of the industry.

A regular contributor to ITS conferences, tug designer Robert Allan gave a highly detailed account of inconsistencies to be found in classification society rules governing tug building and operation. The presentation included a 'right of reply' from a panel of representatives from each of the societies mentioned.

'Tractor Plus Performance Results'were discussed by Steve Scalzo and Gary Faber from Foss, Karel Kaffa from Kooren and William Hurley of Glosten Associates. They outlined the project to upgrade two Voith tractors in the Foss fleet by replacing the skeg with an azimuthing propulsion unit.

Among the wide range of other towage related papers was one presented by Frans Quadvlieg of Marin and Stephan Kaul of Schottel, one detailing the development of means of a calculation programme for escort forces generated by stern drive tugs. 'Do It Safely or Not at All' was the title of a paper from Lars Seistrup of Svitzer Wijsmuller and a technical paper by Brandon Durar of Jon Rie Intertech outlined the importance of 'high tech' winch technology.

Bound copies of the whole proceedings will eventually be available from; The ABR Company Ltd. Tel: +44 1225 868821, Fax: +44 1225 868831.

In keeping with previous ITS events, delegates were treated to some light relief on the Wednesday afternoon in the form of a 'Tug Parade', hosted by Wartsila at the Rotterdam Cruise Terminal.

As one would expect in a country where 'Tug Spotting' is a national sport, tugs of all shapes and sizes appeared from every direction resulting in the biggest turnout ever for the convention. About seventy tugs, led by the Netherlands Coastguard tug Waker and followed immediately by Europe's oldest tug, the little steam tug Rosalie of 1873 vintage, passed the assembled audience to turn against the backdrop of the impressive Erasmus Bridge. The parade included tugs of almost every type and ended with the brand new Damen Shoalbuster Baloe, handed over to her owner only the previous day. Among the very few 'foreign' entries was the historic British motor tug Kent, flying the Maritime Journal flag, and the new Adsteam Warden, both from the Medway.

A welcome and interesting change to the ITS programme was a series of visits arranged on the final day, giving delegates the opportunity to see first hand the work of major local players such as Damen Shipyards, the Marine Research Institute, and the Port of Rotterdam. Proceedings were concluded on the evening of the same day by an excellent reception and tour at the new Smit International headquarters.