By Casey Conoly, Professional Mariner.
McAllister Towing & Transportation’s multiyear fleet renewal gained momentum this spring with the arrival of Isabel McAllister in the Port of Baltimore. The 6,770-hp tug is the fourth delivery in a six-boat series from Washburn & Doughty Associates in East Boothbay, Maine. The shipyard also designed Isabel using its proven and well-respected 93-by-38-foot platform optimized for escort work. Isabel arrived in Baltimore in late April following a voyage down the Eastern Seaboard from Portland, Maine. It completed two ship-assist jobs before arriving at the company dock, making an immediate impression on the local pilots.
“The other night on the first job, the captain had both boats working easy, which is about one-third power for Baltimore. The pilot was like, ‘Whoa Isabel, you’ve got to calm down,’” Capt. Mike Reagoso, McAllister’s vice president for Mid-Atlantic operations, recalled in a recent interview.
“She has significantly more power than the pilot was used to feeling for the direction they had given the tug,” he continued. Capt. Austen Parish, the captain on Isabel McAllister, praised its power, maneuverability and ship-handling abilities. He got to know the tug during the delivery voyage and liked how it handled a little weather along the way. But what really stood out was the tug’s livability. Parish likened the interior layout and outfitting to that of a high-end apartment, not that of a workboat.
“I have not seen a harbor tug that is half as comfortable or nearly as quiet as this one,” said Parish, who joined McAllister four years ago after working as an officer on oceangoing ships. “As someone living aboard for most of my two weeks, that is my most important thing.” With a history dating back to 1864, McAllister Towing is one of theoldest and largest family-owned tug- boat operators in the United States. Buckley McAllister, the company’s chairman and CEO, is the great-great grandson of company founder Capt. James McAllister.
McAllister’s fleet of more than 60 tugboats includes about 40 with z-drive propulsion. These tugs with red and white stripes on the stacks work in ports up and down the East Coast, from Eastport, Maine, to San Juan, Puerto Rico. The company is based in New York City, where it operates more than a dozen tugboats, including Grace McAllister, a sister to Isabel. The company’s fleet renewal program accelerated in 2017 with the arrival of Capt. Brian A. McAllister, the first of eight 6,770-hp tugboats to join the fleet from multiple shipyards. These low-emission tugboats have EPA Tier 4-rated engines and deliver more than 80 metric tons of bollard pull.
That additional power will come in handy in the Port of Baltimore, which has continued its steady growth that began before the Covid- 19 pandemic. Baltimore had quietly become the ninth busiest port in the United States leading up to the Dali bridge strike in March 2024 that brought down the Francis Scott Key Bridge, killing six highway workers. Shipping activity has largely recovered from that incident and its aftermath, which closed the shipping channel for nearly two months.
Maryland Gov. Wes Moore in February announced a design concept for a replacement bridge. Early estimates suggest the bridge will cost about $2 billion to rebuild, with a tentative opening in late 2028. While traditionally known as a roll-on/roll-off (ro-ro) port for its vast vehicle and equipment imports and exports, Baltimore also does a steady trade in coal and electrical generation equipment and machinery, along with chemicals and breakbulk and all manner of cargoes you’d expect at a large global port. U.S. Census Bureau data from 2023, the most recent year available, shows vehicle exports in Baltimore were worth more than $27 billion, while imports added another $8 bil- lion. Coal exports, meanwhile, were valued at more than $5 billion.
Those high-volume cargoes contributed almost $40 billion to the more than $80 billion worth of cargo that moved through Baltimore’s port in 2023, according to Maryland Port Administration data. That marks a 38% increase from 2019 and an 8.3% increase from 2022
Shipping activity should rise further in the coming years amid development of a massive container terminal at Tradepoint Atlantic, already the site of an expansive logistics and ro-ro hub. The proposed 330-acre Sparrows Point Container Terminal would become a dedicated home to MSC containerships. An economic impact study prepared for Tradepoint Atlantic estimated the site will boost Baltimore con- tainer volumes by 70% while creating thousands of jobs and more than $1 billion in new investment.
“We already have 15,000-TEU ships coming in now,” Reagoso said, referring to the shorthand for twen- ty-foot equivalent container units. “It used to be in the range of 8,000 or 9,000 TEU.” The present and future growth at Baltimore is a big reason for Isabel McAllister’s presence in the port. It will work alongside the 5,100-hp Bridget McAllister and 4,650-hp Vicki McAllister, both of which generate at least 60 tons of bollard pull. Typical two-tug tows for inbound containerships involve meeting the ships outside of the former Key Bridge location and getting a line up center lead aft and another one forward. The aft tug often helps slow the inbound ships and assists themin making a dogleg turn soon after entering the harbor. Isabel’s reserve power and addition- al bollard pull can do things other tugs in the port cannot.
“It is an extra measure of security for the pilots,” Reagoso said. “Now, with 5 more knots of wind we can still get the ship in safely. It also gives our customers the added flexibility for the parameters in which they can operate.”
The propulsion package on Isabel McAllister is nearly identical to its recent sister tugs, Grace McAllister and Jane McAllister, which were delivered over the last two years. Twin 3,385-hp Caterpillar 3516E main engines drive Schottel z-drives. A pair of John Deere gensets provide electrical power, and a Cat C18 engine drives the fire pump.
The Washburn & Doughty vessel plans feature a skeg design that allows for powerful indirect escort abilities while maintaining maneuverability and responsiveness when working alongside a ship. Parish, the tug captain, likened it to a muscle car.
“Coming from the Vicki McAllister … a great boat that doesn’t get the credit in Baltimore she deserves as the lowest horsepower boat, I would classify the Vicki as a pickup truck and this a muscle car,” he said. “This thing is agile and yet still packs more punch than what we hope is ever needed.” Deck equipment consists of an electric Markey DEPCF-52 winch installed on the bow and an electric Markey capstan and H-bitt on the aft deck. An aft-facing FFS monitor with foam-injection capabilities is installed on the Texas deck aft of the wheelhouse. Schuyler Cos. soft loop fendering at the bow provides additional cushion when pushing against a ship.
Typical crewing on Isabel McAllister is four people, allowing each person to have their own room. The vessel’s open-concept galley and mess is laid out in a way that invites crewmembers to hang out during and after meals or watch a movie together between ship-assist jobs, Parish said. “There are three heads with showers, so you don’t have people waiting in line. These are huge rooms for a tugboat, there is a lot of insulation so it is really quiet, and there is so much storage, especially for refrigerated food,” he said of Isabel’s creature comforts. “It really looks like an interior designer turned it around. Someone made this feel like an extension of home, not ‘the oily, dirty tugboat at work’ that my wife would think about.”
That’s not a coincidence. Washburn & Doughty hires a residential builder to outfit its tugboat interiors, according to Matt Norian, the shipyard’s vice president of engineering. There’s also special emphasis in the 93-foot tug design to dampen vibration and reduce engine noise inside the crew spaces. “We’re proud of the reports and feedback we get from the crews about how comfortable the vessels are and how powerful, safe, capable and hopefully reliable they are as well,” he said.
McAllister has been a longtime customer of Washburn & Doughty over the years, with multiple tugboat classes. Reagoso said the towing company is putting the new 93-foot tugs to work as fast as the Maine shipyard can deliver them. “Washburn & Doughty turns out a really nice product,” he added. “We couldn’t be more excited about it.”
This article originally appeared in Professional Mariner’s American Tugboat Review 2025.
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