Great Lakes Towing and Great Lakes Shipyard celebrate a new era for tugboats
InnovationThe Great Lakes Towing Company is celebrating its 125th anniversary as the largest U.S.-flagged tugboat fleet operating in the U.S. Great Lakes. Long nicknamed “The Towing Company,” it’s forging a more sustainable future by taking a bold approach to making everything old new again… and/or better.
“I’m grateful to be in this role during this key time in our company’s history as it makes this major transition in terms of fleet renewal,” says Joe Starck, Great Lakes Towing’s president, who joined the company 33 years ago.
Great Lakes Towing has 40 tugs stationed at 14 U.S. ports. They provide harbour towing, ship assistance, cargo transportation, ice breaking and other services to more than 45 U.S. ports along 8,300 miles (13,357 kilometres) of shoreline and 100,000 square miles (259,000 sq. km.) of open water.
Over the years, the company has evolved to meet the changing transportation needs of agriculture, steelmaking and construction. It also has branched out to include companies involved in vessel design, construction, repairs, chartering, government operations, line-handling services, and machine shop services.
Great Lakes Towing itself has played a major role in the U.S. Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Seaway maritime industry since its July 7, 1899, incorporation in New Jersey. The founding shareholders included business magnate John D. Rockefeller, and Jeptha H. Wade, a founding member of Western Union Telegraph.
When Starck took over the company’s helm in 2016, many of the operating tugs were literally more than a century old.
We have one tug built in 1897 that has been repowered five times, and sank twice!
Great Lakes Towing built all its original tugs between 1899 and 1935 for steam engines, then repowered them in the 1950s with surplus World War II diesel engines. They were permitted to remain in service indefinitely under a federal grandparenting clause. In fresh water, tugs easily last more than 50 years. Most of the tugs now progressively being replaced are a century old.
“I never imagined a small company like ours could afford a new construction program,” Starck admits. “But after looking for older coastal tugs ready for a second life in fresh water, along with trying to repower our existing legacy tugs, we realized that new construction was the most cost-effective way to proceed.”
The savings in fuel consumption, significantly lower maintenance, repair and part-replacement costs, along with the ability to operate a new tug with two rather than three people in a challenging labour market all make the new-builds a wiser investment. “We have worked closely with our unions to make sure no billets are phased out and everyone maintains a wanted job,” Starck quickly adds.
Following the successful construction of the first new tug, the company was able to obtain some funding for the next four tugs through the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Diesel Emission Reduction Grants (DERG) program. Tugs six and seven qualified for some funding through the EPA Region 5 Diesel Emissions Reduction Act (DERA) program. The company is investing on its own in the final three tugs in this fleet renewal series.
Great Lakes Towing began planning this renaissance approximately a year before joining Green Marine as a participant in 2017.
It marked its 125th anniversary this past July by welcoming the newest vessel to its fleet of modern ice-class tugboats: The Minnesota.
It is the eighth Damen-class vessel built as part of the 10-tug fleet renewal program.
Each new tugboat is named after a U.S. state. In a test of resilience, the company and shipyard launched the Pennsylvania and the Wisconsin during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. The next boat – the ninth hull in the series – is scheduled for completion in November. Hull 10 will be completed in 2025.
The introduction of each new tug has permitted the company to withdraw two vintage tugs from service, eliminating 18 old tugs from its legacy fleet in all, but the company can’t keep doing so:
By cannibalizing our own fleet, we reduce service coverage area. We need to keep enough boats in service to effectively cover the requirements in all ports and for all customers.
Great Lakes Towing is partnering with its busiest port on the next phase of fleet renewal. The Port of Cleveland, which is also a Green Marine participant, has included a request to assist The Great Lakes Towing Company to build two all-electric tugboats as well as a charging station as part of the port’s EPA Clean Ports Program grant application.
“The exterior of the electric tugs will look the same as our newest diesel tugs, but there will be batteries and generators in place of the main engines,” Starck relates. “Detail design work will begin as soon as January.”
Great Lakes Shipyard, where all the new tugs are being designed and constructed, was the first U.S. shipyard to join the Green Marine environmental certification program in 2017 along with its parent company. “Green Marine has really guided us in terms of having more sustainable shipyard operations now and going forward,” says Justin Dew, Great Lakes Shipyard’s health, safety, security and environment (HSSE) manager.
Green Marine helps us to stay on top of new cleaner technologies as they become available, so that we opt for those when replacing outdated equipment.
The company has always operated a shipyard. Originally established to build and service its own fleet, the shipyard began offering a wide range of marine repair services to third-party customers in the early 1980s. The shipyard is a major contractor for the U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Geological Survey, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and many other federal, state and local governments. The services expanded in the 1990s to include marine fabrication. New vessel construction was added in the early 2000s. A 2021 acquisition further expanded fabrication and machining capabilities.