H. Nelson Spencer

Richard Ardeneaux Ardeneaux hired on with Cooper Marine & Timberlands in 2010 and, four years later, he became pilot on the original mv. Green Wave.

Capt. Billy Allen, 68, is a senior captain with Golding Barge Line, where he has worked for the greater part of his 40-year career on the river.

Terral RiverService acquired the assets of Vidalia Dock & Storage Company, Two-J Ranch Inc., 363 Dry-Dock & Repair LLC, and Natchez Marine & Towing Inc.

Mike Marko, president and owner of Mike’s Inc. and this year’s selection for the IMX Achievement Award, has always had an innate ability to fix things.

Jim Newsom Ag Service Inc., dealing in salvaged grain, fertilizer and other agricultural products, has recently added a storage warehouse located in the Greenville, Miss., port complex at Lower Mississippi River Mile 537. The enclosed warehouse can handle 5,000-plus tons of six different commodities, along with open-air storage for more than 10,000 tons. Newsom uses […]

Brad Busatto, president of Industry Terminal & Salvage Company, is carrying on a family tradition that stretches back to the 1930s.

Chem Carriers LLC, Sunshine, La., has announced it is expanding. The liquid transportation firm, founded in 1994, is adding to its fleet of towboats, said Frank Banta, president. “We let a contract to Verret Shipyard to build two new towboats. The boats will be 76 by 32 feet and have 1,600 hp. from…

Easy to laugh, Jim “Goat” Patterson is known for hearty outbursts that can spill over into the next room or fill a convention center, as one might expect from a riverman who stands 6’5” and weighs well over 300 pounds. Some of this was on display during his acceptance speech at the recent River Bell […]

Pete Merrill, the has been working as a marine surveyor for 55 of his 75 years, and he still comes in early at Merrill Marine Services.

Harley Marine Gulf has exited the inland unit tow business in favor of growing its bunkering operation. On May 29, the company sold four of its 12 towboats.

Capt. Ron Harrison has been working on and around the rivers his whole life; he now works with his brother Bob at Bellaire Harbor Service on the Ohio River.

Capt. Bryon Given helms the Leonard L. Whittington, a 140-foot, 5,600 hp. towboat operated by Inland Marine Service for American Commercial Barge Line.

No sooner had this story—which is about two soon-to-retire rivermen who have spent their entire careers with the same company—started to take shape than it quickly doubled in scope. Two other retirees from the same company, it turned out, had been there every bit as long. “The story can’t be about just us,” said both […]

Parker Towing Company Inc., Tuscaloosa, Ala., “one of the oldest, most respected barge lines in the country,” as its literature states, recently expanded its marine and terminal operations on the southeastern waterways with the acquisition of a marine services company in Mobile, Ala. On September 27, Parker Towing purchased the assets of Henry Marine Service […]