The contractors overseeing the replanting project had at their disposal an old LCM landing craft that surely dated from World War II. Usually this was left out on a mooring a few hundred meters offshore. One night it was left pulled up on the old concrete boat ramp next to the lab. Much to our surprise, next morning it was underwater. At the time I thought it unfortunate it had not sunk out at its mooring, because I was sure it would forever block our boat ramp. But they decided to try to pull it out.
First, round up a few empty 55 gallon drums, strap them together, connect them with a cable under the stern of the LCM. At low tide, synch up the cable to make it as tight as possible. Then lay down a couple of old wooden telephone poles as rollers and get all the heavy trucks on the island, including an old bulldozer abandoned there by the army and somehow made to work again by a mechanical magician, and cable them up to the front of the LCM.
Alas, all the equipment is pretty old. Here one of the fuel trucks lost its brakes. But it got pulled out and cabled up again.
And the old bulldozer might have run, but its brakes were also no good, much to the dismay of Roger the operator. We never did get this out of the water.
But it worked. Amazing. The LCM was pulled out and repaired, its hull was filled with foam, and it was put back into service. Until it sank completely in the middle of the lagoon a few years later.
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