Page 34: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (April 1971)

Puerto Rico Marine Lines

Inaugurates Tug And Barge

Cargo Service From Gulf

Plans were announced for the inauguration of a monthly cargo service by Puerto Rico Marine

Lines, between the Gulf ports of Lake Charles,

Houston and Galveston, and the Puerto Rican ports of San Juan, Mayaguez and Ponce.

Puerto Rico Marine Lines, a division of Puget

Sound Tug and Barge Co., Inc., of Seattle,

Wash., will operate oceangoing barges and tugs in the new service, and all cargo will either be unitized or palletized to provide for efficient and fast cargo handling. All of the barges are built to American Bureau of Shipping standards and are certified for ocean operation. The tugs are fully automated and are powered by 3,500-hp diesel engines.

Lykes Bros. Steamship Co., Inc., a pioneer in the Gulf-Puerto Rico trade, has been appointed general agents for Puerto Rico Marine Lines at all U.S. Gulf ports and throughout their hinter- land, comprising the entire Mississippi Valley area. All Lykes offices are accepting cargo book- ings for the new service.

Puerto Rico Marine Lines' parent company,

Puget Sound Tug and Barge Co., has a long his- tory of successful ocean barge operations out of

Pacific Coast ports, including the Alaska Hydro- train, a twice-weekly train ferry service between

Seattle and the Alaska rail belt.

The company also played an important role in the development of the North Slope oil operation, and set a record when it delivered 190,000 tons of oil field equipment by barge to Prudhoe Bay in 18 days of operations under extremely adverse conditions.

Towboat For Ingram Barge Co.

Christened At Nashville Bridge

Participants at the christening left to right are: Mrs.

Raymond Tesch, co-sponsor; Bill Gee holding the um- brella for his wife, and Bill Barton of Nabrico Marine

Department standing ready with towel.

With a splash of champagne broken over the capstan, the M/V Bill Gee was christened recently at the Nashville Bridge Company shipyard, Nashville, Tenn. The vessel was built for Ingram Barge Company, and was named for Ingram vice president William D.

Gee. Mrs. Gee was the sponsor at the christen- ing and Mrs Raymond Tesch served as co- sponsor.

Mr. Gee has been in marine transportation for 34 years, having started with Socony-Vaeuum

Oil Co. at Kansas City, in 1937. He joined In- gram Barge Co. in 1947 as chief engineer of the M/V E.B. Ingram, and later the M/V

Nelson M. Broadfoot. These vessels were the first two built for Ingram by Nabrico. In 1950,

Mr. Gee was promoted to port engineer and was elevated to vice president, engineering in 1965. Since that time, Ingram has built five new towboats and currently operates a fleet of nine towboats. The M/V Bill Gee is the third Nabrico built vessel delivered to Ingram since last July, when the M/V Bruce Brown was delivered. The M/V John M. Rivers was delivered in September.

Mrs. Gee the former Sally Williams, was an employee of Ingram Barge when the M/V E.B.

Ingram was built, and she served as spon- sor for both the M/V E.B. Ingram and the

M/V Nelson M. Broadfoot.

The new twin-screw, kort nozzled vessel measures 121-feet by 33-feet by 10-feet six inches, and is powered by two General Motors

Electro Motive diesels, 8-645-E5. It has two 96-inch stainless five-blade propellers. The re- tractable pilothouse towboat went into im- mediate service.

A large company of invited guests witnessed the christening, and were treated to a walk- through inspection of the vessel prior to the ceremony. Following the ceremony, Nashville

Bridge Company hosted a party for the guests at the Hillwood Country Club.

The new twin-screw towboat M/V Bill Gee undergoing river trials prior to the christening at Nabrico.

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Investigate the advantages of tug automation . . . call us for a survey and estimate. 36 Maritime Reporter/Engineering News