In August of 2000, Smit International bought British Columbia's second-largest towing company, Rivtow Marine. Mitch Hughes, Rivtow's fleet systems manager, stayed with the new company and took part in the salvage of the very large crude carrier Atigun Pass off the coast of Washington shortly after. Working with the Rotterdam head office, Hughes and the Vancouver office scrambled a crew and, widi vessels of opportunity, pulled the ship to safety. But that wasn't Hughes' first salvage. Having started at Rivtow in 1980 and moving to the maintenance department in 1987, he learned and lived by the B.C. towboat industry's maxim: "Make do." The B.C. towboat industry has evolved a routine means of righting flipped flat-deck barges by a simple process of power buckling with the aid of anchors and tugs. When the Washington Marine Group's self-loading and self-dumping log barge Seaspan Rigger flipped in Howe Sound, north of Vancouver, on Oct. 19, 2002, everyone knew this would be no routine salvage job.
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