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DANN OCEAN TOWING I PROFILE The POWER Dann Ocean Towing has over 60 years’ experience as a leading provider of marine towage and turnkey project management serving the eastern seaboard of the United States, the Gulf of Mexico and beyond. Stephen Dann, President, related the latest news to Phil Nicholls. BEHIND THE TOWING 2 Dann Ocean Towing
For a company like Dann Ocean Towing, each day brings a fresh challenge. Few such challenges are as iconic as the con tract with Eastern Shipbuilding Group of Dann Ocean
Cool and iconic towing
Diversification at Dann Ocean Towing sees the company manage stevedore crews operating pneumatic cement loaders for customers in Tampa, Fort Lauderdale, New York, Providence and Rhode Island. “We do a wide variety of things,” said Stephen Dann, President. “We are ocean going, we’re a power provider to a lot of different industries, including a lot of bulk cargo barges. We’re involved in dredging and marine construction, salvage opera tions in general, and we keep our hand in with the general towing.”
The most iconic ferry in the United States is, arguably, the Staten Island route operated by the New York City Department of Transportation. Dann Ocean Towing had the honour of towing the new Ollis class ferries built by the Eastern Shipbuilding Group, shepherding the new vessels from Florida to New York. Dann Ocean Towing is a fifth-generation tugboat company with a history stretching all the way back to Captain Clay Johnson’s paddle-wheel steamboats in the 1860s. Dann Ocean Towing Inc was officially founded by Rodney H Dann, Jr in 1960. From this beginning, the company steadily grew with a wide portfolio of services. Today Dann Ocean Towing has a fleet of 17 twin-screw ocean tugs ranging in size from the 74ft (22.5m) Captain Willie Landers to the 119.9ft (36.5m) Helen. With 150 employees, Dann Ocean Towing is based in Tampa, on the Gulf Coast of Florida. The company conducts a lot of business along the eastern seaboard of the US, so maintains dock space in Brooklyn, New York, and a mooring buoy at Bay Ridge in New York Harbor. The fleet at Dann Ocean Towing provides a broad range of marine towage services around the east coast and the Gulf of Mexico. Contract towing projects might take Dann Ocean tugs across the Atlantic, down to Central or South America, or across to Europe. Occasional voyages take them into the Pacific to China or Japan, but around 90% of the voyages are much closer to home.
Salvage, rescue and barge towing contracts are regular parts of the busi ness alongside harbour assist, oilfield support and anchor handling projects.
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Dann Ocean Towing believes a company is only as good as its crew. The company is proud of its roster of experienced, welltrained crews who are dedicated and com mitted to the industry. “One of our strengths is our ability to retain employees,” explained Mr Dann. This experience in depth is a central plank of the company’s USP, along with its agility within the market. “We are multi-faceted; we provide the power and can move with market trends.”
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Panama City in Florida. Eastern are in the process of building three new Ollis class Staten Island ferries. These new vessels combine the traditional double-ended design of the ferry with a capacity of 4,500 passengers and an overall length of 320ft (98m). First built was the Michael H Ollis, named after the Staten Island native Army Staff Sergeant Ollis, who was killed at the age of 24 while on his third tour of duty in Afghanistan. Fittingly, this was towed to New York by Dann Ocean Towing’s tug Colonel. The Sandy Ground was the next build off Eastern’s slipway and was towed by Dann Ocean Towing’s tug Sarah Dann to New York in December 2021, a voyage which took 14 days. Other projects for Dann Ocean Towing take the company back to Captain Clay editorial mention
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We know tugs, barges, and the value of uptime. We take a hands-on, practical approach to risk management.
All segments of the marine industry are working towards a more sustainable future. “We’ve done a number of re-powers to bring our engines up to compliance,” Mr Dann said. “If there’s a cleaner, safer, more efficient engine out there, then we’re interested in getting our boats up to speed.” Mr Dann identified the overlapping government jurisdictions as a hindrance towards advancing progress in this area. From Dann Ocean Towing’s base in Florida, federal and state agendas for the environment are not always in alignment. Additional instability in the US political system from the rolling calendar of elec tions every two years pours further oil on troubled waters. In an ideal world, Mr Dann would seek a consistent message from the government , with a clear agenda and precise targets. The implementation of environmental regula tions in a business takes time and money, so any new legislation should have suffi cient lead-time to allow businesses to plan the necessary upgrades. Sadly, the current political climate does not afford Dann Ocean Towing the desired certainty for the Instead,future.Dann Ocean Towing must focus on those elements of the future it can con trol. Alongside planning for the growth of wind farms in the northeast, Mr Dann is also exploring additional partnerships with Moran Towing Corporation moving bulk barges. Further potential diversification will come from the development of more cargo operations and support services.
Johnson’s paddle-wheel steamboat ori gins on the Kissimmee River and Lake Okeechobee. Such a nostalgic project was the contract with Broadwind Heavy Fabrications and Konecranes in Port of Manitowoc, Wisconsin. This involved towing ‘Big Blue’, a crane capable of lifting 140 tonnes and the 2021 winner of ‘The Coolest Thing Made in Wisconsin’ award from Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce and Johnson Financial Group. Dann Ocean Towing were entrusted with towing this $55 million crane across the Great Lakes and through the St Lawrence Seaway. The journey proceeded through the Atlantic to Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, Maine. The ‘Big Blue’ crane will double lifting capacity for the US Navy in Kittery. Winning market share In such a varied sector, Mr Dann must keep a close eye on market trends: “Everyone is gearing up in the northeast of the US for wind farming: we believe that will lead to a lot of opportunities for towing and anchor work.” Eager to maintain its market share, growt h within the sustainable energy sector is one opportunity to secure additional business, although Mr Dann remained cautious about the potential. The planned windfarms in the northeast will offer additional work for tugs, but possibly not “an oil field type of Asbonanza.”anestablished player in the field, Mr Dann takes a traditional view of building relationships with clients. “I treat people fairly and honestly. I still operate using a lot of handshakes sealing a deal with people that I’ve done business with before. When I tell someone, I can do a job, they trust me.”
Voyaging into greener waters
The newly delivered Staten Island Ferries have the fairly simple task of travelling back-and-forth between the St George Ferry Terminal in Staten Island to the Whitehall Ferry Terminal in Manhattan. In contrast, the Dann Ocean Towing fleet of tugs continue to visit new ports and customers around the United States and beyond. n
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