When I worked in the Persian Gulf in Qatar in the 70's, the company had a small tug we used as a dive boat around the rigs. It had a 5 cylinder Crossley diesel engine, no gearbox, a direct drive from engine to prop. When we wanted to go astern, the engine had to be stopped, the engineer had to wind the overhead camshaft across the cyl. heads to connect up with another set of valves on the other side and then start the engine in reverse using a compressed air starter motor. Then to go ahead the whole performance in reverse order was gone through again, and it all took time. Anything more than 4 or 5 evolutions and the air reservoir was empty so couldn't start up until the small compressor had refilled the reservoir again. Needless to say, the bow and stern areas were well and truly dented to the extent that the port anchor refused to run out at all. I think it was bent in the hawse pipe. When coming alongside the dock wall, we lassooed a bollard and used the after winch to stop the boat and pull us into the wall to moor up for the night. You're right about antisipating the next move, but ours was in hours rather than minutes. I lost count of the number of foul props we used to get. Kept the divers in full time employment though. Years later, I met a chap I used to work with. He said they did some underwater demolition work and used to light the fuse on deck then drop it over the side then steam away to a safe distance and await the big bang. Unfortunately, they got a foul prop with the fuse as they steamed away which winched the dynamite charge up to the prop. The prop was cut off clean as a whistle and the rudder bent flat to the hull. It wasn't long after that she went for scrap. I got quite attached to the old girl, she did the best she could. Happy towing, Geoff.