Author: Professional Mariner Staff

Ocean Group (Groupe Océan), the Quebec-based company that dominates tug services on the St. Lawrence River, has added a third z-drive tractor tug to its fleet of 18 tugs, this one working in Quebec City while two others are handling…

Moran Towing Corporation, a Connecticut-based company that operates the largest fleet of z-drive tractor tugs on the East Coast, keeps building more of them.   Not only that, but Moran is engaged in an aggressive barge building program and will…

Employees of Island Tug & Barge, Ltd., Vancouver, British Columbia, like to say that they don't know much about bollard pull ratings — for them its much more about barge pulling. That, they say, is what they do.   Almost…

Vane Brothers of Baltimore can no longer be described as a small, Baltimore-based bunkering company with scattered coastal barge operations. From now on it appears that Vane Brothers will be a multi-level oil transportation company with operations up and down…

These are great years to be in the barge building industry, although it's anyone's guess what will happen after the OPA 90 deadline year of 2015.   For now, most of the major shipyards building coastwise and inland barges have…

There were days when ship lights in the distance were mysterious, sometimes even a little threatening. Those lights belonged to an unknown vessel until it was spoken to and identified. In many cases the lights of an unknown ship would…

Providence Steamboat, a small, family-operated tug company in Rhode Island, has been steadily upgrading its fleet of ship-assist tugs, the latest improvement being the addition of a twin-screw, 4,800 hp conventional tug named Maurania III.   Introduced in mid-2005, the…

Americans, vigorous consumers to begin with, are benefiting from a strong economy, and that spells good news for the tugboat industry. The U.S. economy, despite all the hurdles blocking its path, has been growing for several years. Despite dramatically higher…

Marine Towing of Tampa, through acquisition of new tugs and disposal of others, has recently earned the distinction of being the only tugboat company in North America operating an all-tractor tug fleet.   The company recently took delivery of a…

Crowley Maritime, focusing its current building efforts on expansion and modernization of its West Coast tank barge fleet, is engaged in a $250 million construction program involving six new heated oil barges and matching 9,000 hp tugs with articulated connection…

Bisso Towboat, one of three competing ship-assist companies on the lower Mississippi River, is continuing its decade-long new-building program with the introduction this spring of a new 4,400 hp z-drive tractor tug, Alma S.   This tug has been a…

Golding Barge Line, the relatively new inland barging company based in Vicksburg, Miss., continues to expand its fleet with new barges and towboats, the latest being a 2,400 hp boat with a retractable pilothouse.   Golding, founded by Steve Golding,…

Crescent Towing of New Orleans continues to modernize and expand its fleet of z-drive tugs with the introduction of a 6,100 hp tractor specifically designed for ship-assist work involving LNG tankers on the Savannah River in Georgia.   Crescent's new…

The energized port of Halifax, Nova Scotia, has been turning in record numbers for the shipping business while two modern and well-financed tugboat companies are competing for the estimated $5 million to $10 million worth of tug business in the…

Steve Proehl, following in the footsteps of Walter Blessey, for whom he worked for a decade, is off to a brisk start with his new inland barging company, Horizon Maritime, based in Houston.   Proehl, who resigned from Blessey Marine…