Page 31: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (April 2, 2010)

April 2010 www.marinelink.com 31

Moran has long had its share of barge operations, and has looked into the prospects of container barges for short-sea shipping. And then there was the changing world of liquid product. "In 2006, we made the decision that we would no longer operate or tow single-hull equipment," said Tregurtha, "and we haven't since the end of that year. We have six ATBs now, we're in the process of doing a seventh, and we have five conventionally-towed barges that are all double-hull." The barges were built by a sampling of yards around the map —

Bay Shipbuilding in Sturgeon Bay, Eastern Shipbuilding

Group in Panama City, Bollinger Marine Fabricators in Mor- gan City La., and Gulf Marine Repair in Tampa, Fla., which is refitting the barge Virginia for ATB operation.

Architect Bob Hill developed the ATB conversions of the

Scott and Barney Turecamo, and the all-new ATB tugs built by Washburn & Doughty. "We've worked with Bruce Wash- burn, Jensen Maritime Consultants, Robert Allen on the Costa

Azul tugs — we've seen different things from each of them."

Including the talent and insights of personnel joining the company through acquisitions over the years, Moran's roster of affiliations reads like a who's who of the towing industry for a century and a half. Yet that industry has been profoundly dy- namic. The wherewithal used by Michael Moran to move masses of canal boats being reinvented by the time the Admi- ral moved his wartime armada, all reinvented once more in the past decade of Z-drives and ATBs. The unifying factor among all has been a perceptual one at Moran Towing: the ability to assess the broad view. Scope.

Barney Turecamo and sister Scott were reworked into prototypes of Moran's purpose-built ATB fleet, Bob Hill and Washburn & Doughty credited with design and con- struction of both sets.