Evansville Marine Buys Two Boats

Evansville (Ind.) Marine Service recently bought two twin-screw towboats from Knight Manufacturing Corporation, Rosiclare, Ill. The fleeting and harbor service purchased the mvs. Samantha Ann and Kati M, both 55-foot, 1,320 hp. vessels built in 2014 and 2013, respectively, by Serodino Inc., Chattanooga, Tenn.

Evansville Marine changed the name of the Samantha Ann to Capt. Doug, in honor of the company’s vice president, Doug Gray. A 44-year veteran in the river industry, Gray started out on the river as a deckhand for Huffman Towing Company in 1974. Later, he worked for Owensboro Harbor Service, also as a deckhand, but as a scrap cutter, too, junking out old barges on his days off. He transitioned to working full-time at Owensboro Harbor in 1985, merited a promotion to the pilothouse and finally moved shoreside as assistant operations manager, where he remained after Evansville Marine’s purchase of Owensboro Harbor Service in 1998.

“I have been with Evansville Marine Service since that time and have managed to be fortunate enough to work my way to vice president of operations, where I hope to stay as long as the fine folks I work for will put up with me and find me useful,” he said.

The Kati M was renamed Brantley B in honor of Brantley Burton, who is the new son of Travis Burton, Evansville Marine’s operations manager. The namesake is also the grandson of company president Bob Aldrich.