(BALTIMORE) — Vane Brothers in July took delivery of Rock Hall, the third in a series of four 3,000-horsepower pushboats. The newbuild is the 19th Maryland-built towing vessel to join the Baltimore-based company’s fleet since 2008.
Chesapeake Shipbuilding and Naval Architects of Salisbury, Md., has delivered 16 3,000-hp model bow tugs and three 3,000-hp square-bow pushboats to Vane. Two of Rock Hall’s sister tugs, Salisbury and Annapolis, were delivered in 2019 and 2020, respectively. The molded depth of these push tugs is only 10.5 feet, making them well suited for working in confined, shallow-draft areas along the East Coast’s inland waterways.
While providing crew comfort, reliability and operational efficiency, all three Salisbury-class push tugs have also been constructed in compliance with U.S. Coast Guard Subchapter M safety standards. One more 3,000-hp Salisbury-class pushboat, Charles Hughes, is scheduled for delivery from Chesapeake Shipbuilding later this year.
To create the Salisbury=class design, Chesapeake architect John Womack worked in close collaboration with Vane Brothers port Capt. Jim Demske, who has overseen construction of nearly 50 tugboats for Vane over the past two decades.
Rock Hall is named for a waterfront town located on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. The town is known as “The Pearl of the Chesapeake.”
– Vane Brothers