A marine handling craft and
system is intended for use in deploying, inspecting and receiving vessels and payloads to and from locations on, under, over or near water and wet soils in potentially turbulent aquatic or atmospheric conditions. The marine handling craft may operate as a
robot, or deployed from a crane or boom on a mother ship or other platform or helicopter so that it can transport and mate and dock at various locations, such as supply ships or autonomous marine vessels, at a stand off distance to limit
potential harm to valuable assets. A sliding
fastener and track are included on the marine handling craft so that it can be tethered and lifted by a
single line or cable, and so can be manipulated by a single crane or helicopter. The utility of the handling craft is not limited to the transport of payloads and it may function as a stand-alone vessel for various
remote sensing purposes. Smart communication between the marine handling craft and other vessels or other nodes in a distributed
computer network facilitates simultaneous, hierarchical and multi-tasking control of the craft and permits
verification and inspection of payloads, which might otherwise cause damage when
proximate to more valuable assets.