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| With the Seattle skyine as a backdrop, Crowley’s ASD tug Valor glides past a cruise ship. Crowley operates an eight-tug fleet in Puget Sound, including five Voith Schneider tractor tugs and two azimuthing stern drives. |
In Seattle, the East and West Waterways of the Duwamish River fork around Harbor Island at the south end of Elliott Bay. Crowley Maritime’s Seattle office is on the island.
With the East Waterway behind him, Mark Reisen, the chief mate aboard the tug Chief, maneuvered her into a starboard indirect pull, turning the NYK container vessel Nebula and heading her into Puget Sound. The tug Valor worked the stern of the outbound ship.
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| Capt. Matt Maxwell at the helm of Chief while assisting China Shipping’s container vessel CSCL New York, right, to move to Pier 18 in Seattle’s East Waterway. |
Chief is a Harbor Class, Voith-Schneider cycloidal drive (VSP). Valor is a Valor Class azimuthing stern drive (ASD).
In Puget Sound, Crowley’s fleet of eight tugs includes five VSPs, two ASD tugs and Hunter, a conventional twin- screw tug dedicated to response/rescue for Washington’s Department of Ecology at Neah Bay.
Crew recruitment and environmental issues are concerns within the company, as they are throughout the maritime industry.
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| Capt. Matt Maxwell at the helm of Chief while assisting China Shipping’s container vessel CSCL New York, right, to move to Pier 18 in Seattle’s East Waterway. |
“We are currently looking into several new-build options to coincide with future demand," said Chris Peterson, Crowley’s vice president of West Coast services. Still in the design phase, the Ultra Low Emissions Vessel (ULEV) is aimed at meeting Southern California’s impending air quality regulations in the short term.
“The goal of the design of the boat is not to just dramatically reduce air emissions, but overboard discharges and total environmental impact throughout the life cycle of the vessel," added Peterson.
“Crowley has approximately 100 vessel employees working within Puget Sound and roughly 85 employees shore-side at our Pier 17 facility in Seattle," said Scott Hoggarth, general manager of West Coast services.
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| Capt. Matt Maxwell at the helm of Chief while assisting China Shipping’s container vessel CSCL New York, right, to move to Pier 18 in Seattle’s East Waterway. |
“One of Crowley’s chief concerns is crew recruitment and retention.
“Finding qualified crew has become much more difficult as we are competing with worldwide demand for licensed and unlicensed crew alike.
When we hire someone out of one of the U.S. maritime academies, there is still a great deal of regulatory and compulsory training that needs to be accomplished."
Once the outbound Nebula was underway and headed into Puget Sound, Capt. Matt Maxwell took the wheel of Chief, and with Valor, picked up China Shipping’s waiting container vessel CSCL New York and moved her to Pier 18 in the East Waterway — a quick little one-two turnaround. •
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| Lee Graves, the chief engineer on Chief, guides the towline on its way up. |
