The Towing Company celebrates its 116th year

USCG Cutter Biscayne Bay prior to being put back in the water

JULY 7, 2014 — The Great Lakes Towing Company and Great Lakes Shipyard, Cleveland, Ohio, will start celebrating their 116th year by putting the USCG Cutter Biscayne Bay back into the water using the shipyard’s 770-ton capacity Marine Travelift.

Work under the cutter repair contract started in early May included drydocking and routine maintenance.

The Great Lakes Towing Company continues work on the tug Wyoming, the 10th tug to be overhauled and inspected at the shipyard as part of the company’s ongoing fleet overhaul program.

Other tugs included in the initiative to date include: California, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Ohio, South Carolina, Pennsylvania, Superior, and Vermont.

Founded on July 7, 1899, the Great Lakes Towing Company’s founding shareholders comprised a veritable “Who’s Who” of America’s great industrialists of the day, including John D. Rockefeller, Jeptha H. Wade, and James R. Sinclair, among others.

Popularly called “The Towing Company” for its entire 115-year history, the company has been a significant marine operations link in one of the major economic lifelines of North America — the fourth seacoast and the Great Lakes Seaway System.

The Towing Company has continuously evolved to meet the changing demands of the agricultural, steel, and construction industries, and the needs of the ships and tug/barge units, which serve those industries.

Through its development of Great Lakes Shipyard, the company has continually adapted and improve its services to the needs of the day. It says that as it stands upon the achievements of its historic past, it also faces the future as a challenge to be met with the full resources at its command.