Hi Tugmad, Yeah I left my Dockyard apprenticeship in 1969 to work on Crescent Shipping motorbarges, I spent my next 7 years or so working on the Thames before I went back into the Dockyard at Chatham to work on the PAS boats. Yeah I remember the double banking in the KG dock especially with the Port Line vessels, I was telling Shipmate 60 how the lightermen would shoot their lighters into the docks and let them drift around etc. I went up the Thames a couple of years ago a few times to the Lower pool, the river had changed completely, virtually all the old working wharfs had gone, no local trade work on the river to speak off, the river as far as I was concerned was completely dead. I thought it was funny, when it was really busy there was no VTS system, now you cannot do anything without asking for permission or you have to have a pilot, PROGRESS !!!!!!!!!