The Great Lakes Towing Company has played a major role in the towing business on the Great Lakes since its incorporation in New Jersey on July 7, 1899 -- 100 years ago. The Company's founding shareholders comprised a veritable "Who's Who" of the nation's great industrialists of the day, including John D. Rockefeller, Jeptha H. Wade, and James R. Sinclair. Popularly called "The Towing Company" for its entire 100-year history, the Company has been a significant marine operations link in one of the major economic lifelines of North America -- the fourth seacoast and the Great Lakes Seaway System. The Towing Company has continuously evolved to meet the changing demands of the agricultural, steel, and construction industries, and the needs of the ships and tug/barge units which serve those industries by adapting and improving its services to the requirements of each new day.
In the Preface of his book on the corporate history of the
Company, The Story of the Great Lakes Towing Co., published by the Great Lakes
Historical Society, Vermilion, Ohio in 1984 the author, Alexander C. Meakin,
indicates that "while virtually everyone who has spent much time observing
harbor activities in the major American ports on the Great Lakes has seen the
red and green tugs of The Great Lakes Towing Company in action, relatively few
persons are aware of the extent of the Company's operations, to say nothing of
its origin and history." The book tells that story. The book is available
for reference at maritime libraries, the Library of Congress, and at the Great
Lakes Historical Society, 480 Main Street, Vermilion, Ohio 44089; the latter
Society's museum being the primary custodian of reference material,
photographs, and memorabilia from The Towing Company's past.
Company services include local harbor towing, docking and
undocking, interport towing of vessels and barges, ice breaking, rescue, and
assistance to grounded or damaged ships. The Company’s tugboats tow every kind
of barge and marine structure, and provide barging services for through cargo
movements, whose origin or destination may be other than a Great Lakes’ port,
such as a movement of heavy lift cargo from Pennsylvania, down the Mississippi
River system to Louisiana and the Gulf, or the movement of the world’s largest
telescope mirror via the Seaway to Erie, Penn. Company tugboats also perform
harbor towing services in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and in the islands of the
Caribbean -- recognition of the superior capability of the same type harbor
tugs used to dock vessels on the Great Lakes.