Zapata Gulf Marine Corp

Barge Operator to Acquire Rival: Tidewater Inc., a large operator of boats and barges for off-shore oil operations, will acquire Houston-based Zapata Gulf Marine Corp., creating the largest firm of its kind in the world. The $407-million acquisition will give New Orleans-based Tidewater 576 vessels ranging from towing and supply boats to barges.

Barge Operator to Acquire Rival: Tidewater Inc., a large operator of boats and barges for off-shore oil operations, will acquire Houston-based Zapata Gulf Marine Corp., creating the largest firm of its kind in the world. The $407-million acquisition will give New Orleans-based Tidewater 576 vessels ranging from towing and supply boats to barges.

Cuban officials Wednesday released a small American vessel carrying strange cargo--New Zealand's America's Cup sailboat--after holding it for 23 1/2 hours. A Cuban gunboat had intercepted the offshore oil supply vessel Tampa Seahorse on Tuesday, alleging it had penetrated the island's claimed 12-mile territorial limit en route from San Diego to New York, via the Panama Canal. The United States generally recognizes only 3-mile limits for international waters.

A small vessel carrying New Zealand's massive America's Cup sailboat from San Diego to New York was seized by a Cuban gunboat and taken into port Tuesday afternoon. According to the U. S. Coast Guard in Miami, the Cubans said the 156-foot, offshore oil-support ship Tampa Seahorse, flying an American flag, was inside Cuba's claimed 12-mile territorial waters off the southeastern end of the island.

Celebrated in song and literature from Shakespeare to Mark Twain, the drunken sailor is a figure as venerable as seafaring itself. In "Moby Dick," Herman Melville inserted a victuals list for a whaling voyage that included "550 ankers of Geneva (gin) and 10,800 barrels of beer" and marveled that harpooners "so fuddled" with drink could "stand up in a boat's head and take good aim of flying whales . . . and hit them, too." But drink and the sea are not mixing as well for modern sailors.