Johnny Holt Johnny Holt was already a painter and a welder in 1988 when he began decking for Tuscaloosa, Ala.-based Parker Towing Company at the suggestion of his father-in-law, Capt. Read More
Profiles
They may not spend a watch in the wheelhouse or appear in line-handling reels on TikTok, but they’re nonetheless indispensable to the 24-hour movement of towboats on the nation’s waterways. Read More
Robert Yount For more than 30 years, deckhands, tankermen, pilots and captains have come and gone on the mv. Charles Southern, a 3,600 hp., twin-screw towboat owned by Sulphur, La.-based… Read More
David Wiley For David Wiley, the dream to work on the river started as a boy watching his brother-in-law work as a “deckineer” on the Tennessee River. “I lived right… Read More
Mike Fanshier After spending more than 30 years as a welder, Mike Fanshier was looking for a change. He found it as part of a new career at Riverview Tug… Read More
Vern Gore in the engineroom of the mv. Kevin Michael. (Photo courtesy of Vern Gore) It’s a rare feat for a single individual to be associated with the same towboat… Read More
Warren Clay “I started in June of 1980 when I stepped on my first towboat, and I’ve been here ever since,” said Warren Clay, shipyard project manager for Canal Barge… Read More
James Carnes Marquette Chief Engineer James Carnes comes from a long-standing river family, with a father and grandfather who were both river captains and pilots. But he resisted the river’s… Read More
Few inland waterways leaders have served as long, as productively or in so many different positions as Marty Hettel. Starting in the inland waterways industry as a deckhand in1980, Hettel… Read More
When I got my first job on a tugboat, I didn’t consider it a career path. A well-connected acquaintance made a call and got me a job on a… Read More
