Vessels at Work – Professional Mariner

Pasha’s pure pineapple run keeps the Hawaiian Islands stocked

George II departed the Port of Long Beach before dawn on Nov. 12, 2025, bound for Oahu, Hawaii, with 27 crew on board, including myself. The vessel, owned and operated by Pasha Hawaii, slipped past the Channel Islands on a gray morning, making its twice-monthly “pure pineapple run” between Long Beach and Honolulu. Now 45 years old, the 892-foot, nearly…

Veteran tug crew makes escort work look easy in Port of Oakland

On a drizzly Saturday morning, the 5,080-horsepower, 73-foot tractor tug Revolution spun tight circles just inside the Port of Oakland’s Outer Harbor, churning the water white. Capt. Tony Salazar began the rotations slowly and sped up, creating centrifugal force as the pirouettes progressed. “You’ll feel it start laying, you know what I mean? It will get you dizzy.” Salazar eventually…

A flotilla of working vessels welcomes the Coast Guard’s flagship

Professional Mariner’s “Vessels at Work” section has been a staple of the magazine for nearly 30 years. Photographer Brian Gauvin was among the writers and photographers who, “In conjunction with the editors, developed what became the ‘Vessels at Work’ centerpiece of the journal,” he said. Casey Conley, the editor of Pro Mariner for nearly 10 years, said of “ride-alongs” (what…

Young mariners captain an old ferry line in New Orleans

I just missed the Algiers Ferry, but I knew it would loop back across the Mississippi River in exactly one half hour. Sitting just outside New Orleans’ historic French Quarter, the Canal Street Ferry Terminal was quiet this particular Saturday morning in November 2024 amid clear, stunning weather. I watched the 105-by-25-foot, 150-passenger aluminum catamaran RTA 1 cross the brown Mississippi. Built by Metal Shark Boats (located…

Working on San Francisco Bay with the Bar Pilots

As California was on its way to statehood during the height of the Gold Rush, the first legislative session of the state established the “Pilots and Pilot Regulations for the Port of San Francisco” — an act that created the San Francisco Bar Pilots, who have been in continuous operation for 175 years. The State of California recognized the organization’s…

Cable transfer barges to Lake Champlain bring clean power to New York

Guiding a barge 43-feet-and-6-inches wide into a 45-foot opening from the helm of a tugboat over 200 feet back demands expertise. Captain Nick Pucello demonstrates this prowess as he directs the 1,000-horsepower tug Edna A to finesse a barge with several thousand tons of load, including ballast, into a lock chamber without damage. But the accomplishment is magnitudes more difficult…

Two major ferry systems face different job and employment realities

The two largest ferry operators in the United States have been recruiting from within their own ranks and from within their own communities to build a new mariner workforce. Both NYC Ferry, one of several maritime operators in the New York Metro Area, and Washington State Ferries (WSF) have fostered homegrown captains and crew and expanded their workforces to meet…

Working a wind farm in New England

On the first Tuesday of February, Captain Joshua Rand was catching scallops in the cold waters off Barnstable, Cape Cod, Mass., where he grew up. Well before sunrise on Wednesday morning, he was aboard WINDEA Intrepid at a dock on Pope’s Island in New Bedford, Mass., with his four-person crew preparing for a voyage to Vineyard Wind. Rand grew up…

Moving ships with Bisso’s new tug

Mr. Brian sat at the Bisso Towboat Co. Inc. dock around Mile 165 AHP of the Mississippi River in Convent, La., waiting for a ship. Waiting for two, actually — one bulk carrier was coming off the dock, destined for sea; another was shifting from an upper to lower berth. Mr. Brian, along with Capt. Joseph Bisso, was waiting patiently. …

Navigating the Erie Canal from end to end

Staying on course was not a worry for Capt. Brad Winchell on this voyage at the helm of Carver Marine Towing’s CMT Otter. The entire trip would happen in buoyed channels, mostly those of the New York State Canal System (NYSCS) — commonly called the Erie Canal — currently in its 200th season. Winchell has worked on the Erie Canal…