Page 40: of Marine News Magazine (June 2006)

39 41

average every two years, the tale of Roehrig Maritime seems destined more for the financial pages.

Phase Three?

Where do you go after the house, after the office? Depends how you feel about where you came from. If Capt. Roehrig's moment of conversion regarding tug- boats struck at age eight, it's likely he still feels connected. He wouldn't be the first tug professional to be called an enthusiast as well, but Capt. Roehrig is con- spicuous there too. He speaks of the meetings he's attended of the Tugboat Enthu- siast Society, and measures vacations by tugboats — he's ridden them in Italy,

Brazil, and Croatia, as well as our own West Coast. During a lull at his desk, he might be found clicking through tugboat photos from his collection, on the desk's computer screen. Facing the desk, against the opposite wall, a showcase of minia- tures includes several tugboats. Capt. Roehrig, as they say, is into the subject.

But amid all the pictures, there's a motto on the wall over the desk. Capt.

Roehrig says he got it from a railroad man, of all things: "If you make your liv- ing providing a service," it says, "One of two things better be true: You better pro- vide better service than any competitors —OR-- you better have no competitors."

Capt. Roehrig has his translation. "We've never charged the lowest rates. We give excellent service, and have one of the best safety records to support it. We don't make promises we can't keep, and we keep the ones we make."

Keeping promises in the tugboat game relies on plenty of things in turn, many of which are controllable. Some are not, or at least not so far. Did somebody men- tion a shortage somewhere?

One of the things they say these days is that a lot of incentives to enter the industry are missing, and a lot of new barriers put up. Are there particular rea- sons, besides being into it, to choose a maritime career?

Capt. Roehrig works with the AWO as its Atlantic Coast Chairman, and as a member of a personnel task force. "We think there are ways to ease the burden of getting licenses and renewals, even in a time when security has a greatly height- ened importance," he says. The care, the well-rounded insights, the success that started with a boat, then a fleet, then a company, may soon be reflected by the industry as a whole, as it moves to its next phase. 40 • MarineNews • June 2006

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Roehrig Maritime's John H. Malik joined the Port of New York fleet at the beginning of this year, their second 6,000 hp tug configured for the oil trade. (Photo: Don Sutherland)

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