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"Our mission is to provide safe, sustainable and quality services to our customers and keep the flag flying for generations to come," says Buckley ("Buck") McAllister, the company's fifth-generation president. "Ultimately, we strive to be the best boat company in the business."

And that, in a nutshell, is the driving force behind the family's success.

"We have a great family legacy," McAllister adds, "and it takes elbow grease to measure up to that tradition." Okay, include hard work in that formula.

There are many storied names in the shipping business, but few have the staying power of the McAllisters. They're a legend in and around New York harbor, and the company's distinctive red-and-white striped stacks are a familiar sight in ports up and down the East Coast and as far away as Puerto Rico. And it all started with a single vessel that didn't even have a stack. It had a sail.

BACK STORY

That vessel was a so-called "sail lighter," purchased by the company's founder, Captain James McAllister, in 1864. At the time, he was a mate on a coal collier, and when he arrived in New York harbor, he looked around at all the bustling activity and thought, "Boy, it's a lot easier to find a job here than back in Ireland, where people are starving to death." So he stayed.

It's a familiar story – the Graces, the Morans, the Crowleys, the McAllisters – all Irish families fleeing the potato famines and setting up shop in America. And while the Grace family is no longer in the shipping business, the other three very much are and compete head-to-head in a number of ports.

As for the sail lighter, it was the "pickup truck" of its day, going out to ships at anchor and offloading parcels for delivery elsewhere in the harbor. As the business grew and thrived, James McAllister brought over family members from Ireland to work with him, ensuring a workforce he knew and could trust. The lighterage business was soon augmented with towing, and the company's first steam tug, the R.W. Burke, was acquired in the 1880s, at the time the Brooklyn Bridge was being built. More vessel acquisitions followed along with several mergers.

When Captain James died in 1916, his four sons assumed control of the now much larger company, which by 1918 had moved into the ocean towing business. Always an innovator, the company inaugurated one of the first deep sea tug-barge combinations with the 156-foot tugboat C.W. Morse, carrying molasses from Cuba to New Orleans. And in 1927, it installed a 375-horsepower diesel engine in the Daniel McAllister, making it the first diesel-powered tug in New York harbor.

The third generation – Anthony, James and Gerard McAllister – took the helm in 1936 and helped guide the company through the Great Depression. During the 1940s and 50s, they began expanding the company to include operations in Pennsylvania, Virginia and Canada.

The 1960s saw further growth and expansion, and in 1974 the fourth generation of McAllisters – including Buck McAllister's father, Captain Brian – took over. It was not an easy transition as the company was prospering and Wall St. firms were interested in acquiring it and the fourth generation had to come up with a lot of cash to keep it out of unfriendly hands.

There were more challenges to come – the oil price collapse of the 1980s, an ownership issue and legal battles in the 1990s – but the company powered through and kept growing and innovating. It had helped pioneer the development of the Kort-nozzle, flanking-rudder tugs that dominated the 1960s and '70s. In the 1980s and 1990s, it further modernized its fleet by building Z-drive tractor tugs with the latest firefighting equipment and capabilities.

Today, the fleet stands at more than 70 vessels, 41 of them tractor tugs. Its operations have expanded to include 14 ports up and down the East Coast and Puerto Rico including Eastport and Portland, Maine; Providence, Rhode Island; Bridgeport, Connecticut; New York; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Camden, New Jersey; Baltimore, Maryland; Norfolk, Virginia; Wilmington, North Carolina; Charleston, South Carolina; Jacksonville and Port Everglades, Florida; and San Juan, Puerto Rico.

It also owns and operates a ferry business across Long Island Sound – the Bridgeport & Port Jefferson Steamboat Company, established in 1883. It runs four passenger-car ferries between Bridgeport, Connecticut and Port Jefferson, New York: the Grand Republic, Long Island, Park City and P.T. Barnum, each capable of carrying 1,000 passengers and 100 automobiles.

FIFTH GENERATION

When Buckley McAllister and the fifth generation took the helm in 2013, the company was on solid footing. It had weathered the financial collapse of 2008 and celebrated its 150th anniversary in 2014 with, among other notable events, the publication of a company history, McAllister Towing: 150 Years of Family History.

The fifth generation brought with it a different style of management – more disciplined, more detail-oriented, less swashbuckling. The traditional family values of loyalty, trust, hard work and accountability remain, but the organization is more structured with general managers in the field handling most of the day-to-day operations and corporate taking care of sales, engineering, accounting, insurance, HR and legal matters.

After all, Buckley McAllister is a lawyer who thinks like a CEO. He says the key is "having a management system that incorporates best practices on safety, health, security, and the environment." To support those goals, he's long been a board member of the Steamship Mutual P&I Club, the Seamen's Church Institute and the Coast Guard Foundation, to name a few. He's also a member of the Maritime Association of the Port of New York & New Jersey and the American Bureau of Shipping and served as Chairman of the American Waterways Operators (AWO) in 2013-14.

"McAllister Towing is fundamentally in the ship assist business," he says. "A tug's main mission is to physically assist another vessel. Our company acts in that same way, taking care of other company's vessels and businesses. That's why I support industry organizations."

He further elaborates: "The Seamen's Church Institute provides ministry and training to mariners that build and support our workforce. The AWO is a powerful advocate for the workboat industry and a key partner on improving safety, environmental and regulatory standards. The Coast Guard Foundation takes care of the folks who keep our harbors safe, secure and efficient. The Steamship Mutual P&I Club provides resources and expertise for situations where things don't go as planned. All of these organizations have at their core the mission of taking care of vessels and crew, which is central to what we do as a company."

PARTNER OF CHOICE

Despite all the emphasis on new equipment and tug technology ("I could really nerd out about boat technology," he quips), McAllister says, "The real horsepower is in the wheelhouse."

It's the people who make it all work, he explains: "At the end of the day, the tugboat business is really all about the quality of your people and the quality of the service you provide. That's why we're constantly thinking about how to provide better training to our mariners and better service to our customers."

Sounds like a surefire formula for success now and into the foreseeable future.

"We're confident that investing in our business and our people will ensure McAllister is primed for the future and remains the partner of choice for the next generation of shipping," he concludes.

Amen to that. - TME

Tony Munoz is The Maritime Executive's founder, publisher and editor-in-chief.