A report this week by US tug and barge broker Marcon International tells only part of the story.
US technology giant Google generated headlines and speculation in 2013 when it became known that it had acquired and was converting four US-flag deck barges perhaps for use as four-floor floating showrooms for new products, or even as floating technology stores.
Google never had much to say in public about its barge project, however, and it even tried to force US martime regulators to get onboard with the Silicon Valley code of new-product secrecy.
