A HUGE piece of marine equipment left Teesside this week on board the Jumbo Spirit bound for New York.

Made by Engineering Business, The Sea Titan is a 100-tonne underwater trenching and backfilling plough, bought by US contractor Horizon Offshore Contractors for the burial of submarine oil and gas pipelines.

EB engineers have been designing and building pipeline ploughs for more than 25 years. However, the 100-tonne Sea Titan is the first new pipeline plough to be sold for five years and features a range of technical innovations.

"It is fair to say that the North-East leads the world in this technology and this is a very proud day for EB and its suppliers," said Dr Tony Trapp, EB managing director.

EB had to rent a workshop facility large enough to accommodate the 22m x 22m plough - the LV shipping building on Teesside was chosen because of its dimensions, craneage and access to a deep water quayside. Then an appropriate transport vessel had to be chartered - on Monday a Jumbo ship from Rotterdam arrived on the Tees to prepare for loading.

On Wednesday, the complete plough was lifted from the quayside and positioned on the vessel deck. Following sea fastening of the plough, the ship then sailed on schedule, starting its two-week voyage to the US.

James Brown, project manager, said: "It was an extremely tight schedule and we could not afford to miss our shipping date."

EB, which employs 50 people, mostly professional engineers, is based in Riding Mill, near Hexham, Northumberland, while manufacturing and assembly is carried out on Tyneside and Teesside.