Rock music thumps from the radio speakers as First Mate Dave Hickman manipulates the little joystick that steers the 94-foot-long tugboat Town Point. "There we go, just a little more," says Hickman as he maneuvers the tug close to the bow of the Saudi Hofuf, a huge container ship getting ready to sail from Norfolk International Terminals.

Hickman, a former Virginia state pilot who holds a captain's rating, grabs the microphone from one of several radios on the ceiling of the bridge. Hickman has a clear field of vision - the result of a 1997 renovation that included adding a retractable thruster on the tug's bow that helps dock ships precisely. Hickman sounds out instructions to a sister Moran Towing Co. tug that's approaching the Saudi ship's stern. Both tugs will push the ship away from the dock and into the Elizabeth River channel. The chore takes no more than 20 minutes.

It is midafternoon on an early spring day. Hickman and deckhand Steve Evans are well into their six-hour-long-shift that will see them dock or undock at least three ships. His shift over, Oren Daniels, the Town Point's captain, is asleep below. "It's great on the water, but you do have to concentrate in this job," says Hickman. "A little tiny slip-up can mean a lot of damage and you are facing lawsuits."
There's plenty of work for Moran Towing and its rival firm, McAllister Inc., in the busy port of Hampton Roads. Moran has 20 tugs in the area, including eight new ones that have taken over all docking responsibilities for the Navy's warships based in Norfolk, says Paul Horsboll, a Moran general manager and vice president.

The major duty is docking. Moran has skilled docking pilots who clamber aboard vessels as they enter or leave terminals, direct the ship's helmsman and radio key instructions to helper tugboats. Moran likewise uses its tugs to push or tow barges throughout the East Coast. A hot new destination: Nucor Inc.'s new minimill steel plant up the Chowan River in northeastern North Carolina, not far away.
As Hampton Roads gears up for a massive expansion, Horsboll says there will be plenty more work. The ships of the future will be bigger, deeper and wider. Already, Moran has upgraded most of its tugs by upping their horsepower and adding thrusters that help put lots of power at the right points on ships' hulls.

On the water, life is a routine of waiting for ships, intense concentration and then waiting for the next assignment. The men work 14 days on and then take a week off. For food, there's a galley where most of the crew cook for themselves, except for the rare boat that has a cook aboard. While tug crews don't make as much as state pilots, the pay is fairly good. An experienced first mate can earn $70,000 a year or more.

The promise of good pay is what brought Steve Evans, the Town Point's deckhand, on the water. For a number of years, Evans was a city policeman in Baltimore. He decided to take a salary cut to get experience on a tug. A relative newcomer, he says he loves the water, but dislikes the long days away from his wife, who lives at their home in Maryland. "It will take a few years, but after I get more experience I'll maybe get to be a docking pilot," he says. The Saudi container ship is on her way, and the docking pilot has climbed back aboard one of the tugs. Hickman flexes the joystick to the sounds of Bon Jovi as he waits at a wharf on the Elizabeth River for the next job.

Return to Virginia Business - May 2002