Page 29: of Marine News Magazine (March 2026)

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Maritime Voices

Capt. Paul C. LaMarre III

Tug America — 1897 & Still Working

If the Port of Monroe is LaMarre’s modern canvas, the tugboat America is his living link to the past — and a working reminder of what maritime resilience really looks like.

Built in 1897, America is, LaMarre says, the oldest commercially operating tugboat in the world. She is “almost entirely original,” he notes, except for a repower from steam to diesel in 1950. Cable steering. Riveted hull. And still doing the job she was built to do.

LaMarre calls the tug the port’s mascot — a symbol of endurance on the inland seas.

And he’s not talking in metaphors alone.

He describes occasions when America assists the Paul R. Tregurtha — a 1,013- foot Great Lakes giant — into Monroe. A vessel built for the scale of modern bulk commerce, aided by a tug designed in the era of wood schooners, steamers, and horses and carriages.

For LaMarre, it’s more than machinery.

It’s the sensory core of the industry: “stale coffee, cigarettes, diesel, paint,” and the ritual of putting up a towline — the kind of detail only a working captain would choose to highlight.

“With each turn of her propeller,” he said, “we’re one further page into the history books.”

And if America stands as an example of what the industry has been — and what it can still be — LaMarre’s outlook is simple: “The future looks bright and strong.” www.marinelink.com MN 29|