Bisso Towboat Co. has added another azimuthing stern drive (ASD) tugboat to its Lower Mississippi River ship-assist fleet with the delivery of the 100-by-38-foot Mr. Brian from Main Iron Works.
The 5,000-hp tugboat, named for Brian Cyprowski, the company’s longtime vice president for operations, is based near its home office in Luling, La. The tug primarily performs ship-assist work at terminals lining the Lower Mississippi River, although it can operate from Baton Rouge, La., to the Mississippi Rier boundary waters. Mr. Brian is powered by two 2,500-hp Caterpillar 3516E Tier 4 engines driving Kongsberg z-drives each turning 94.5-inch stainless-steel props in nozzles. Twin Cat C4.4 engines driving 118-kW generators supply electrical power to the tug. Bollard pull is 68 tons ahead.
Other components include a sturdy JonRie Series 240 winch, Samson Saturn-12 hawser line, Schuyler Cos. fendering, Icom VHF radios and Simrad navigation electronics.
The tug is equipped with Fireboy-Xintex alarms and a Hiller Cos. fixed CO2 fire suppression system in the engine room. Louisiana Cat supplied the main engines and auxiliary engines.
Mr. Brian has tankage for 30,000 gallons of diesel, 11,000 gallons of potable water and 2,000 gallons of diesel exhaust fluid.
Bisso Towboat is the only ship-assist company on the Lower Mississippi with an all-ASD towing fleet. Mr. Brian is the sixth new ASD tugboat Main Iron Works has built for Bisso Towboat in the last nine years.