[cva66snipe]

Yeah, you've gotta love that floating hoist rig they used to lift the submerged cypress trunk. I lived down there and know those waters - some of those home-built pontoon rigs are three generations old.

The Navy at one point used the basic concept for submarine rescue ships. Granted you have to take into account the obvious unknowns when lifting a log though.

[Charles Martel]

Yes, including a briefly clandestine version, as I recall. Some unknowns were encountered when it lifted its payload, too.

Some say, though, that the mission didn't fail as described - but that the boat was retrieved intact.

I guess the huge scale of submarine rescue gear blinded me to the obvious similarities that it has to the lifting rigs in Louisiana (which appear to be designed by The Professor from Gilligan's Island, rather than a bunch of engineers paid by Howard Hughes). ;-)