Major geotechnical investigations were conducted for a proposed shipyard at Bandar Abbas, Iran, and a silo complex and dock at Tanjong Priok, Jakarta, Indonesia. In Iran, drilling and sampling were conducted from a drill ship and a jackup platform. The drilling in Indonesia was from an existing jetty and on onshore reclaimed marine areas. The value of both in-situ and laboratory strength testing was demonstrated at these geologically diverse sites. The soils at the Iranian site were generally overconsolidated, whereas at the Indonesian site the geologic history indicated the soils to be normally consolidated near the surface and becoming progressively underconsolidated with depth. At both sites, in-situ tests indicated higher shear strength then did laboratory tests on relatively undisturbed soil samples. The shear strength values used in design were based on the laboratory strength data, with the in-situ data allowing an evaluation of the relative conservatism of the selected relationships.