Maritime Partners Christening Honors Steiner Family

Metairie, La.-based Maritime Partners held a christening ceremony June 28 at Steiner Construction’s shipyard in Bayou La Batre, Ala., for a pair of 2,000 hp. towboats. Overall the 50th and 51st towboats built at the yard, the two vessels are also the 12th and 13th in a 14-boat series Steiner Construction is building for Maritime Partners.

But the names on the two vessels, and the namesakes themselves, were what made it a special day for Steiner Construction owner Russell T. “Bubba” Steiner and his family. The mvs. Ivy Steiner and Russell Steiner are named for his two children.

“When Bubba called me and said, ‘What do you think about naming a couple boats after Russell and Ivy?’ it was an easy decision,” Austin Sperry, co-founder and president of Maritime Partners, said at the christening. “I’ve had the pleasure of eating and hanging out with both of his kids on separate occasions. I think the true measure of someone’s success is how they raise their kids and the legacy they have with their children. I have five kids, so it’s very important to me. It’s the most important thing.”

Sperry then turned to Ivy and Russell Steiner, ages 18 and 10, respectively, and added, “Congratulations. This is a huge day for you and your family to have a boat named after you for the next 30 to 50 years.”

Family Shipbuilding Legacy

The Steiner family’s shipbuilding legacy is now in its third generation. Bubba Steiner’s grandfather, Clarence, started a shipyard in Bayou La Batre in the 1950s, with his father, Russell, purchasing the yard in 1969. Bubba Steiner established his own shipyard, Steiner Construction Company, in 2003.

That family shipbuilding tradition, though, isn’t just on the Steiner side of the family. Bubba Steiner’s maternal grandmother, Mary Lou Batley Jones, served in World War II as a “Rosie the Riveter,” building ships for the war effort at Gulf Shipyard in Chickasaw, Ala. Jones, now 100 years old, attended a christening at Steiner Construction last October for the mv. Michael J. Kennelly.

Bubba Steiner asked Sperry about naming the two boats after his kids about six months ago, but the groundwork for that request goes back years. Since Steiner Construction has been building towboats for Maritime Partners, the Steiner and Sperry families have spent a lot of time together.

“Mr. Austin is awesome,” Ivy Steiner said. “We’ve become pretty good family friends with them. We’ve gone fishing and hung out with them a lot. Mr. Austin’s always been so nice, and it was such an honor for Maritime Partners to do that. I was shocked.”

Ivy Steiner is a first-year aviation student at Auburn University. She spent her entire summer after graduating from high school accumulating flight time aboard a Cessna 172 and earning her private pilot license (PPL).

“This summer I flew five days a week every week,” she said. “I was able to get all my hours on my requirements. It was definitely a journey, and it took a lot of time, but I wouldn’t have wanted to spend my summer any other way. It was really fun.”

Ivy Steiner said her mother and stepfather both have their pilot license. She flew aboard a small plane for the first time when she was 12 years old and first took some flying safety lessons at age 14. Now, with a private pilot license in hand, Ivy Steiner starts at Auburn as a sophomore and will begin working on her instrument rating. She plans to start her aviation career working for a large airline.

Ivy Steiner said, despite being so familiar with the shipyard business, seeing her name and her brother’s name on two boats was amazing.

“I’ve grown up going to christenings, and it’s just part of the bayou,” she said. “Where we live, we see pushboats all the time. It’s pretty cool to read the names and wonder who that is. I never thought, ‘Wow, this might happen to me.’ The christening was awesome. It was so cool getting to break the bottle after I’ve seen it done so many different times.”

She added that her brother’s namesake vessel carries an extra meaning.

“Not only was it named after my brother,” she said. “My grandfather’s Russell Steiner, my dad’s Russell Steiner, and my brother’s Russell Steiner. It was really sweet for the three of them to be there and to be honored.”

Both Ivy and Bubba Steiner were sure to also recognize the shipyard crew that built the boats.

“We really appreciate Maritime Partners for letting us name the boats after my kids,” Bubba Steiner said at the christening. “More and more thanks to the people that work for us. This wouldn’t happen without y’all.”

“It was awesome to see everyone at the yard who put so much work into building the boat and making it possible,” Ivy Steiner said.

Towboat Specs

The Entech-designed mvs. Ivy Steiner and Russell Steiner measure 78 feet by 34 feet, with a 10-foot depth. The vessels’ 2,000 hp. comes from a pair of CAT C32 Tier 3 main engines paired to Reintjes 573L gears from Karl Senner, which turn 76-inch by 66-inch four-blade stainless steel Sound propellers. The vessels feature Duramax Drymax seals and Johnson Duramax bearings. The vessels have tankage for 24,760 gallons of fuel, 13,823.9 gallons of potable water, 4,396.4 gallons of waste oil and dirty bilge, 215.5 gallons of hydraulic oil, 428.3 gallons of lube oil and 212.7 gallons of gear oil.

Ship service power comes from a pair of John Deere 4045AFM 65 kW. generators. Eastpark Radiator supplied the grid coolers. Gulf Coast Air and Hydraulics supplied the alarm and steering systems. Wheelhouse Electronics provided the electronics and communications equipment aboard the vessels. Fire safety equipment is by Donavon, which also supplied the Mascoat-DB coating for the vessels. Paint is by Sherwin-Williams.

On deck, the vessels feature a pair of Nabrico 40-ton electric winches. Fendering is by Schuyler.