Boatnerd Discussion Forum

Hannah did own Tampa Tugs. I worked aboard the Kings Challenger as an engineer in 1983 & 84 while laid off from American Steamship Company. From what I can remember, the Tampa Tug fleet consisted of three tugs, the Kings Challenger, Queens Challenger and another tug, whose name slips my mind, that was on a contract with Dow Chemical moving barges between Freeport, Texas and Aruba.

I believe that Hannah operated the Hannah fleet and Tampa Tugs as two seperate companies.

I have an old Greenwood & Dills from 1988 that shows the Tampa Tug Corporation out of Houston, Texas, with the following tugs in its fleet: Donald C. Hannah, James A. Hannah, Margaret M. Hannah, Mary E. Hannah, Mary F. Hannah, and Challenger.

[quote]Didn't Hannah operate as the Tampa Tug Corporation at one time during the 1980s? Was the tug involved in this accident actually named the Kristin Lee Hannah or was there another Hannah tug named Kristen Lee?[/quote]
I'm not aware of the Hannah family being involved in Tampa. George Steinbrenner and others bought out St. Phillip and formed Bay Transportation Corporation at Tampa that would eventually be sold to Hvide in the late 1990s. Steinbrenner's son would form Marine Towing of Tampa Inc. in 1999. Steinbrenner acquired Tampa Shipbuilding & Repair Company in 1972 and pretty much made that his base of operations for the future (well, there and Yankee Stadium). The [i]Kristen Lee[/i] was the former Army tug [i]LT 815[/i] of 1945 and later [i]Harry Foss[/i]. Hannah subsidiary O. L. Schmidt got it in 1984 and renamed it [i]Kristen Lee[/i] and Hannah renamed it [i]Kristen Lee Hannah[/i] in 1993. In 2000 Hannah acquired the towboat [i]David E.[/i] from Egan Marine (and Egan took the [i]Kristen Lee Hannah[/i]) built 1953 at Sturgeon Bay as the [i]Inwaco[/i], and renamed it the second [i]Kristen Lee Hannah[/i]. It was finally sold in 2011 as part of the original liquidation of Hannah and became the [i]Nicky Ray[/i] and is now the [i]Buckles[/i] for Upper Missouri River Corporation, Madison, Mississippi.

Didn't Hannah operate as the Tampa Tug Corporation at one time during the 1980s? Was the tug involved in this accident actually named the Kristin Lee Hannah or was there another Hannah tug named Kristen Lee?

[quote]What was the "Hannah liquidation debacle" & what became of the Margaret M Hannah? Thanks in advance.[/quote]
Because of rampant mismanagement and feuds Hannah Marine was forced to liquidate when it defaulted on several fleet mortgages in 2009. The [i]Margaret M. Hannah[/i] is apparently still with us. It was sold to Margaret M. LLC and renamed [i]Margaret M.[/i] but has not operated since 2011. It was supposedly sold at auction in 2011 when Margaret M. LLC also defaulted, but I know it was at the old Hannah facility at Lemont over a year ago. It left documentation 31 December 2011, registered at Cleveland, but PSIX has entries for it as late as September 2016, the location being Willowbrook, which is a couple of. miles north of that spot (and landlocked). This Google Maps image I believe shows it there, which is now the Full Circle terminal.

Thanks for the responses!

When I worked as a summer student at the Sun Oli dock in Sarnia, used to spend quite a few hours loading "six oil" onto the Hannah tug/barge, Margaret M Hannah/Hannah 2902 . The "six oil" was delivered to - mostly - Edison Marysville (recently demolished) & a place called Sytacky (not sure spelling) in (I think) Toledo.

What was the "Hannah liquidation debacle" & what became of the Margaret M Hannah? Thanks in advance.

The [i]OLS 30[/i], built 1980 at Brownsville, Texas, by Valley Shipbuilding Company, was being towed by the [i]Kristen Lee[/i] from Ludington to Bay City with 10 million gallons of calcium chloride aboard. On 9 October 1988 it began taking on water north of Rogers City and was intentionally grounded off Forty Mile Point, where it capsized. Hannah and Dow Chemical wanted the cargo released into the lake so the barge could be salvaged, but environmental and sport fishing groups went to ourt to block that. Dow awarded McAllister Towing a salvage contract. On 3 December 1988 the salvage barge [i]McAllister 252[/i] also grounded at the site when it broke free of its anchor cables. The tug [i]Patricia McAllister[/i] was the other vessel in the salvage process. The McAllister barge was brought to Sturgeon Bay for repairs and the Hannah barge sealed for the winter. However the [i]OLS 30[/i] began to move in March 1989 and Malcolm Marine was hired to keep track of the hull. In May 1989 McAllister and Donjon Marine renewed salvage efforts using the previous two McAllister vessels as well as Selvick's [i]Carl William Selvick[/i] and Ryba Marine's [i]Venture[/i]. On 13 May 1989 the Hannah tug [i]Betty Gale[/i] towed the barge, then upside down, into Calcite, where it was discovered very little of the calcium chloride remained in the hull. After what was left of the cargo was pumped into [i]Hannah 2901[/i] and being righted, the [i]Betty Gale[/i] towed the [i]OLS 30[/i] to Sturgeon Bay for repairs. The barge is still in service after being sold in the Hannah liquidation debacle to Olympic Tug & Barge, Inc., of Seattle.

I just came across a newspaper article online telling about Hannah's barge OLS-30 sinking near Rogers City in 1988. In looking at a 1990 Greenwood guide at a local library, this barge appears to still be in service. I'm assuming that it was salvaged and not abandoned to the insurers?