This amazing vehicle is a Self Propelled Modular Transporter (SPMT). It has SIXTEEN axles, so even though it’s a long old beast, it can turn within what would be impossible spaces for anything else less flexible. Its controller has a complex panel that he carries on a sling around his neck and shoulders, so he can “walk” the SPMT to its destination. It can go really low to get under whatever it needs to lift and shift, and that’s what it’s about to do here – slide under the cradle supporting RML 497 aboard her sea-going barge Terra Marique. Then the SPMT will extract the Fairmile B onto the dockside, for the last stage of her journey by road to the National Museum of the Royal Navy in Hartlepool. All very straightforward – if you have the skills. They do.