Capt. Dan Price, Turn Services

In 1974, a 14-year-old Dan Price “decided I didn’t like school” and dropped out.

“My dad, Sherman Price, gave me an ultimatum,” he said. “Go back to school or get a job because you aren’t living here off us! So I said, OK!”

Price was born in the Houston area, but for his first five years of life, his father worked for a power-line company that had him moving his family all over the country. Then, his dad went into the river business, became a tankerman and eventually worked his way up to captain. Price remembers sitting in a car with his mother, waiting for his dad to take his tankerman licensing test, and later, waiting for him to take his captain’s exam.

By then, the family was back in the Houston area, and Price scoured job listings looking for work.

“We had a lot of towboat companies around there back then,” he said, “and a little fleet company called Bacon Towing was the first one that called me back. They interviewed me and offered me a deckhand job at $27.50 a day.”

Technically, Price had to be 16, but he was big for his age and stretched the truth a little, he admits today. His first boat was an 800 hp. fleet boat.

“I worked for a lot of small companies that later either went out of business or were bought up by bigger outfits,” he said.

By the time Price was 18, he was working for Alamo Barge Line and had learned how to transfer fuel. He got his tankerman’s license in 1979, following in his dad’s footsteps.

“Then I began learning how to run a boat,” he said.

Price earned his captain’s license at age 25.

“Pretty good for a dropout!” he said.

Price captained for many companies, traveling on just about every river all over the United States.

“I was mainly in the Houston harbor in the beginning, but I went everywhere—the Ohio, Red River, Arkansas River, Upper and Lower Mississippi,” he said. “The Ohio River was probably my favorite. We called it ‘the retirement river.’ The Red and Arkansas rivers were challenging, with fast rises. In those days, if a company asked you to go somewhere, you went, or they found someone else who would.”

Asked about “hair-raising experiences,” Price admitted that he was given a plaque and award by the Houston Propeller Club for an incident that happened when his towboat was tied up to a ship, pumping fuel, as well as a Certificate of Merit from the Coast Guard. The current was strong, and after another vessel got tangled in the anchor chain, its bow went into the first vessel’s void space, causing it to move forward and threatening to break the fuel line.

“Luckily, the tankerman saw what was happening and stopped the fueling,” Price said.

Price “played harbor tug” and pushed the bow of the vessel toward the current.

“I told the [ship’s] captain, ‘Go into the current,’” he said. “Of course, there was a big investigation. I’ve also ridden out a few hurricanes, which I’d rather not repeat.”

Price has had a vessel named after him. The Captain Dan Price was built in 2008 by the Eastern Shipbuilding Group, Panama City, Florida—originally as the mv. Richard Coen for Florida Marine Transporters. It was a 2,689 hp. boat, powered by two Cummins QSK 38 diesel engines with Twin Disc MG-5600 DR reduction gears, at a ratio of 7.22:1, turning two, 84-inch by 72-inch, stainless steel, fixed pitch propellers, with flanking rudders. In 2011, Genesis Marine bought the boat and renamed it for Price in 2012. Centerline Logistics, later acquired by Maritime Partners, later renamed it the Dr. Ray.

Price joked, “If you’re offered to have a boat named after you, it might be better to have it named after your wife or kids. In case it’s ever involved in an incident, your name won’t be out there.”

Among his mentors who helped him, Price especially remembers Pat Studdart, CEO of Buffalo Marine, and Gene McLaughlin, a port captain at Hollywood Marine. Hollywood Marine was bought by Kirby, and Price also has fond memories of Jim Guidry, a Kirby supervisor.

“He taught me a lot about shoreside operations,” Price said.

Price came ashore in 2000 and worked his way up to operations manager of Kirby’s Inland Division.

After Price retired in 2023, he and his wife traveled and did a lot of things they had always wanted to do. But a funny thing happened.

“I got to missing those phone rings,” he said. “I was bored. When I was working, that phone was always ringing. The phone was too quiet.”

So, he went back to work for Turn Services, where he again serves as a port captain and operations manager, managing the company’s Texas-area fleets in Port Arthur, including 10 vessels of various sizes, along with everything operational in the state of Texas.

Price’s career has given him a great view of the younger people coming into the industry. What does he think of them?

“I believe we’re getting very good recruits,” he said. “They have way more knowledge, based on all the electronic devices they grew up with. Some may not be as fit as my generation was, but they are still willing to go out there and do the work to build up that physique.”

More than the recruits, though, it’s the industry itself that has changed, Price said.

“There are a lot more barges and boats on the river than there were when I was starting out,” he said. “The companies are larger.”

Even with all the increase in knowledge, though, it’s character that still counts, Price said.

“Work ethic, loyalty and honesty will enable you to work up to a better lifestyle,” he said. “There aren’t a lot of careers where a dropout can earn up to six figures. But be sure to treat everyone well. The guy you’re training today may be your boss tomorrow.”