Britain: Friendly Sea Serpents

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Since history first took notice of them 2,500 years ago, the inhabitants of the sun-scorched Cyclades Islands off Greece have led a parched existence. This summer some of the Cyclades are looking positively green. On the island of Hydra a resort hotel that closed two years ago because tourists got tired of going bath-less has now reopened with baths aplenty. Water, which once cost $1.40 a ton in the Cyclades, is now selling for 40¢ a ton.

The Cyclades owe their new verdant look to a fleet of water-carrying Dracones —huge, sausage-shaped bags of rubber-covered nylon, which are towed over to the islands daily from the Greek mainland. The Dracone—which gets its name from the Greek word for serpent—was conceived during the 1956 Suez crisis by British Engineer William Rede Hawthorne, 49. Seeking a quick way to build up Western Europe's oil-hauling capacity, Hawthorne began experimenting in a wave tank with sausage skins filled with alcohol. But soon there was a glut of oil tankers—and European refineries had no more need for sausage barges. Hawthorne began to think of using them with other loads in remote places. Dracones are cheap (from $12,600 to $63,000), can be towed easily by small boats, and do not need fancy dock facilities. And once its cargo has been drained off, a Dracone can either be inflated with air for the return tow or rolled up and carried home on the deck of the towing vessel.

Hawthorne's business has now expanded to fancy London offices across the street from the Bank of England. So far, the company has sold 40 Dracones worth over $500,000 for use in hauling oil or water to isolated communities from Canada to Indonesia. Late this month a 1,000-ton Dracone,the largest yet, will go into service on the Cyclades run, raising the hauling capacity of the Cyclades fleet to 815,500 gallons of water a day.