In January 2012, the Dutch shipbuilding company Veka and the maritime transport company Dockwise (now Boskalis) teamed up for an unprecedented operation: to transport three floating pontoons and eighteen river barges from the port of Nantong in China to the port of Rotterdam. Dockwise entrusted this mission to the crew of the Blue Marlin, at the time the world’s largest” semi-submersible vessel, a unique giant of the seas.

Granted permission to board, I became a privileged witness to this extraordinary operation.

When a favourable weather window finally opens and conditions align, a ballet of men and machines begins. Every gesture is precise, every manoeuvre carefully orchestrated… and men of flesh tame steel monsters.