Hamm’s Buys Trumbull Fleet, Assets
Trumbull River Services was established in Lacon, Illinois, by Ed and Ann Trumbull in 1973. The harbor and fleeting business had operated on the Illinois River at Lacon, serving the area between Chillicothe (Mile 180.3) and Henry (Mile 195.8).
After the owners died, the property went into a trust, from which it was purchased by Hamm’s Harbor Service and Fleeting in December. Hamm’s operates out of Chillicothe at Mile 188. “We bought 33 acres of land, including office space,” owner Richard Hamm told The Waterways Journal. The assets included four boats, the Opal, (800 hp., 50-by-22 feet), Maude (500 hp.), Niantic (800 hp.) and Pequot. Additionally, the old former Norman L and Danny H., a 50-by-22-foot boat, built by Iowa Marine, was renamed the Wesley James Hamm.
Capt. Tony Ice, president of operations at Hamm’s, got his license at 19 and worked all over the rivers before coming back home. “I call Richard my dad because he took me in after my dad died in the 1990s,” he said. “I grew up around the fleet boats.” The Capt. Tony Ice, a twin-screw towboat built in 2013 by Steiner Shipyard Inc. in Bayou La Batre, Ala., and operated by Amherst Madison, is named for him. It was formerly the Normania, operating out of Alton, Ill. Tony came back home to manage operations and the new yard.
Last fall, Hamm’s traded the John F. Walker to Riverview Boat Service for the Western Enterprise, a twin-screw boat built in 1970 by Superior boat Works in Greenville, Miss. “We put half a million dollars into the hull,” Ice said.
The expansion into Lacon, Ill., gives Hamm’s Harbor Service and Fleeting more room to operate its boat repair and fleeting service, Richard said. The company also sells repaired boats and currently has 10 for sale, Hamm said, mostly fleet boats but also a couple of 150-foot-long line boats. “It’s expensive to get these boats in shape due to all the Coast Guard regulations,” Hamm said.
Featured photo caption: Wesley James Hamm, a fleet boat operated by Hamm’s Harbor and Fleeting Service of Chillicothe, Ill. (Photo courtesy of Hamm’s Harbor Service and Fleeting)
