Great Lakes Towing and Shipyard Celebrate 116th Year

The Great Lakes Towing Company and Great Lakes Shipyard will start celebrating their 116th year by putting the USCG Cutter BISCAYNE BAY back into the water using its 770-ton capacity Marine Travelift. The repair contract started in early May included drydocking and routine maintenance.

The Great Lakes Towing Company continues work on Tug WYOMING, the 10th tug to be overhauled and inspected as part of The Great Lakes Towing 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.

UPCOMING 116TH YEAR

Founded on July 7, 1899, the Great Lakes Towing Company’s founding shareholders comprised a veritable “Who’s Who” of the nation’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. The Company, through its development of Great Lakes Shipyard, found the way to continually adapt and improve its services to the needs of each new day. As The Company 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.