Parker Towing Christens Mv. Miss Adelyn

When Chas Haun, executive vice president of Parker Towing Company in Tuscaloosa, Ala., told his daughter that he was naming the company’s newest boat in her honor, she felt special, but was surprised.

“He’s always pretty casual, so he just told me one day,” Adelyn Rogers said of finding out the news. “I was surprised, but it’s very cool. It’s an honor, and I don’t know anyone else who has christened a boat.”

For a young woman who grew up fishing with her father and spending time at the river, lake and beach, the honor felt especially appropriate.

The mv. Miss Adelyn was christened in a ceremony June 27 while docked on the Black Warrior River, across from Parker Towing’s headquarters in Northport. Company executives, employees, family members and guests enjoyed tours of the towboat and a reception at River Restaurant following the ceremony.

Besides Chas Haun, Parker Towing executives include Chairman Tim Parker Jr.; Vice Chairman Charles Haun; President and CEO Tim Parker III; Charles F. Rabbit, vice president of finance; Christopher Bushhorn, vice president of administrative services; Vice President of Sales Lucian Lott; and Gene Moore, vice president of the liquid division.

The twin-screw Miss Adelyn was designed by Farrel and Norton Naval Architects and built by Steiner Construction Company in Bayou La Batre, Ala. Steiner completed the vessel in May. The Miss Adelyn will work as part of Parker Towing’s liquid division, operating on the Mississippi and Ohio rivers.

In introducing the boat to the crowd gathered for the christening, Haun said, “She’s a 120-footer, 3,400 horsepower, with Cummins engines and Cummins generators. She’ll primarily work on the Mississippi River for Valero between Memphis and Louisville [Ky.] on the Ohio. She’s built by Steiner Construction, and we’re glad to have Michael Steiner with us today.”

Haun then shared some insight and personal stories into the reasoning behind naming the boat after his daughter, even drawing a connection between Rogers and the towboat.

“I met Miss Adelyn when she was 5, and she’s always been a confident, smart young lady,” he said. “When we first started raising her, it got a little rocky from time to time. But that ended pretty quickly, and we got to know each other well.”

Rogers is now preparing to enter her freshman year at the University of Alabama.

He then told Captain Gene Turner with a laugh, “If Miss Adelyn doesn’t always act right and fights back sometimes and argues, then it’s just acting like its namesake.”

A prayer from Bubba Massey, campus minister at Tuscaloosa’s Church of the Highlands, followed Haun’s remarks.

“It’s a special day for the Parker family and Parker Towing, so I want to pray a blessing for the family, the team and the entire staff,” Massey said. “Father God, we thank you for this beautiful day to gather together, and we pray for Captain Gene, for this crew and for this boat. We pray your Word, and according to Psalm 121, it says you’ll protect our going in and going out. So we pray from this moment forward that every time this boat is active and that it’s moving, that you’ll put your hand of protection upon this crew, this boat and that you’ll bless it, in the name of Jesus. Amen.”

Following the prayer, Rogers broke a bottle of champagne over the port side to officially christen the mv. Miss Adelyn into the Parker Towing fleet.

Rogers said she looks forward to hearing about Miss Adelyn’s voyages down the Black Warrior River and beyond.

“My friend actually lives on the water by Moundville,” Rogers said, referring to a town on the Black Warrior River southeast of Tuscaloosa, “and he tells me about boats he sees. I told him I’d be there soon.”

Crew members on hand for the christening included captain Gene Turner, pilot Nate Macke, engineer Jacob Hamm, port mate Brandon Williams, top deckhand Dedrick McClendon and deckhand Kenneth Allen.

The operating crew also includes captain Shane Barnhill, pilot Tim Kelly, engineer David Cross, engineer/tankerman David Maddox, tankerman Jacob Turner, tankerman Jeremy Dinan, tankerman Justin Cassidy, deckhand Kameron Grays and deckhand Angus Curtis.

The Miss Adelyn joins the liquid division operated by Parker Towing, which includes a fleet of 11 towboats and 19 barges that transport asphalt, petrochemicals, refined products, black oil and agricultural chemicals on the inland waterway system. In total, Parker Towing has 36 boats.

According to Mason Moore, the boat is a very important addition to the liquid division.

“She is replacing an older vessel, the mv. Reverend Hartley, that is working for Valero Refining,” he said. “While working for major oil companies, it is essential that equipment is not only operationally excellent, but also relatively young.”

Moore, who previously worked with General Marine Services and moved to Parker Towing when it bought GMS in October 2022, said the incorporation of the Miss Adelyn into the liquid division will lower the average age of that fleet.

“It will also allow the re-allocation of the mv. Reverend Hartley to the dry side,” he said.

Parker Towing’s full fleet is one of the largest in the region with vessels ranging from 700 horsepower to 4,600 horsepower. While concentrating on the Black Warrior, Tennessee-Tombigbee, Tennessee, Cumberland and other waterways in the South, the company also provides services to points such as Minneapolis, Minn., Chicago, Pittsburgh, Pa., and Houston.

Turner will serve as captain for the Miss Adelyn and looks forward to his work on the brand-new vessel. The boat is the first new one he’s captained and also the first one he’s captained on the Black Warrior River.

“With a new boat, you have to get to know it,” Turner said. “How it operates, its speed, its personality. Every boat is different and unique.”

Turner has worked in the industry since 1991, and he said that a captain’s relationship with his crew is a special one. He said that crews on boats such as the Miss Adelyn can come together from many backgrounds and locations. He’s worked with crew members from as far away as Washington, but they all share a common bond, he said.

“The work gets into your blood and system, and you can’t imagine doing anything else,” he said. “Some people just love the lifestyle.”

The mv. Miss Adelyn measures 120 feet by 34 feet. The vessel’s two Cummins QSK50 main engines from Cummins Mid-South turn Reintjes WAF 773 reduction gears with a ratio of 6:1, supplied by Karl Senner LLC.