Brian McAllister is still the owner of McAllister towing, and his sons are also heavily involved. However they do not micro manage the company, they have a general manager in each port they serve who manages that particular unit. It seems to be working for them.
Morty should have done the same thing. Hands off, let the managers do the day to day stuff.
Damn sheās a big unit
Letās hope they get her out of there before Hurricane season.
I remember meeting Brian McAllister 40 years ago, he must be 90 by now.
I painted that tug boat red so many times. Oh how times have changed.
Latest headling on the main site looks bad for BTC.
Is this the end of the begining?
The U.S. Coast Guard is moving to take enforcement action against New York-based Bouchard Transportation Company after the company failed to comply with a recent captain of the port order related to the safety of one of its vessels anchored in Port Arthur, Texas.
The Coast Guard says the tugs Kim M. Bouchard and Danielle M. Bouchard and their associated barges have been anchored off Texas Point since mid-December with no known plans to move and crews unpaid since January, raising serious concerns over the safety of the vessels and well-being of the crews.
Captain Jacqueline Twomey, captain of the port of Port Arthur, issued captain of the port orders to both vessels on February 10 to resolve problems related to staffing and safety, or face stiff penalties and even prison.
Similar captain of the port orders were also sent to Bouchard vessels in New York and New Jersey and New Orleans.
The orders have effectively prevented Bouchard crews from abandoning the vessels, despite no guarantee of a paycheck.
According to a Coast Guard statement on Thursday, the COTP order against the Danielle M. Bouchard was āamended to require additional repairs or to be moored at a dockā, with Capt. Twomey granting a 3-day extension for Bouchard to meet the requirements. However, Bouchard has now failed to comply by the extended deadline of Sunday, and a second extension request has been denied, the Coast Guard said.
In accordance with the current captain of the port order, maximum civil penalties for Bouchard could include fines of $94,219 for each violation and a class D felony punishable by up to six years in prison and a fine of up to $500,000.
The Coast Guard insists that the crews of the are not responsible for the penalties, rather it is the responsibility of Bouchard.
āMultiple Coast Guard men and women are in daily contact with crews remaining aboard both vessels to ensure they are safe and have adequate provisions,ā the Coast Guard said Thursday. āTwomey visited both tugs Tuesday and expressed her gratitude to the professional mariners aboard who understand their responsibility to the waterways and are continuing to diligently stand their watch and weather the situation to the best of their abilities. She assured them the Coast Guardās top priority is their safety and wellbeing. She also told them all related fines and penalties will not be directed at them, but rather at Bouchard Transportation Company, ā the Coast Guard said.
Combined, the Kim M. Bouchard and Danielle M. Bouchard and their barges are carrying nearly 200,000 gallons of oil, gas and other potential pollutants.
āThe Coast Guard expects vessel owners to proactively manage the safety of their vessels and ensure operators have sufficient resources to maintain compliance with applicable requirements, and it is our responsibility to the public, professional mariners, and the marine transportation system to hold companies accountable when safety demands it,ā said Twomey.
Just speculation on my part, but bankrupt policy is on the horizon . Morty has very few options left, if any. He is determined to keep his fleet, but that is the giant question. Can he pull a rabbit out of his ass? I hope so, for the employees sake, but dammit Morty you dug your own misery. How you lost contracts with some of the best equipment out there is beyond me, not my former pay grade or position to negotiate contracts. Understand some of the older stuff not getting work, but not your newer equipment, which i am speculating again, have rather large notes on.
What does it take?
The B-255 explosion killed two mariners. NTSB found lack of maintenance and lack of effective SMS. Serious deficiencies in ABS and USCG oversight. Very similar to El Faro findings. The USCG has never published a report on the incident?
post B-255 the majority of BTC fleet was re-inspected about 1/2 was found to be in such poor condition they are forced out of service.
BTC attempts to reclassify several units into DNV to end run ABS.
BTC has increased office SMS audits. USCG and ABS pull DOC. This terminates all SMC on all vessels. USCG and ABS set up improvement plan.
BTC regains short term DOC. COI and SMC reinstated on affected vessels.
BTC is not paying many vendors including ABS.,
ABS puts BTC on notice they will cease all business with them in 30 days (several extensions granted)
BTC sued by many vendors for none payment.
BTC does not meet many of the DOC improvement benchmarks.
BTC starts transfer to DNV.,
BTC stops paying crews, violates COTP orders on 7-8 Units in three COTP zones.
USCG threatens enforcement action.
How could the the USCG still allow BTC to have a valid DOC to operate anything? What does it take?
If a string of similar events happened to a licensed mariner (that was as openly defiant of the law) they would have been suspended a long long time ago!
Some great newer hardware but no oil major will touch it under current management.
I meant sea lawyers in general, but I may be a couple of thousand years off. . . .
When I was an ABS Surveyor, I got a call before I left the vessel from a certain someone. . . just saying. . . Didnāt alter my survey or results. . . in fact, I recommend NOT commenting on my survey work. . .
I was also on several units over years and saw ABS surveyors get beat up on the phone by a certain person, and it ended in a very different out come.
It has been made clear thru the El Faro investigation and B-255 investigation there has been a problem with class and USCG oversight. There is a lot of strong support for this observation.
I agree. If Morty is the micromanager asshole that almost everyone claims he is itās hard to believe he kept his grandfatherās & fatherās company together for as long as he did. One of the basic management skills skimmed over in an introduction to business from my first year of college talked about the effective ratio of leader & subordinates. At that time, directly managing 8 on a regular basis was considered the max for a CEO. Any more than that meant their time wasnāt valuable or you were wasting it. Micromanaging prevents the development of good subordinates & causes the whole organization to suffer. I never worked for BTC but from going from second hand accounts it sounds like Mr. Bouchard has some personality defects that caused him to lose it all. No different than weak minded idiots who lose everything because of gambling or addiction.
Pure speculation here:
Once the fleet goes to auction I think that OSG or Crowley will bid on the big rigs like the Donna and Kim. Kirby, Reinauer, Moran, and maybe Vane Bros and Harley/Centerline will bid on the rest of the fleet. The older stuff like the Evening Tide and the other wire boats will go to the scrap yard or overseas.
Morty may be able to save a few boats to keep too, but heās going to have to give some up to pay off his debts.
Sounds likely. Morty will scrape the chalk board to keep his good stuff,
Cmakin, Iām sure you got calls from many other operators that were asking the same, but perhaps a little less subtle. Glad you held up your standards regardless of the calls, Been there ,saw that. no one has clean hands. Just the way it is/was.
Maintaining a lifestyle that includes $60 million toys may have something to do with this financial meltdown as well.
Ah, the stories I could tell. . . . I can say that they were easily NOT the worst. . . and I was not one of those with their nose stuck in the book demanding blind adherence. On another vessel, someone went over my head and complained. I was copied on the response which stated something to the effect that if I did NOT do what I did, that I would be fired. . . oh. . . .
200% behind you. I sailed from the yard work more often than not āSemi repairedā. I am home now, and not worse for wear and tear. One of the best port engineers I had was not an academy grad among a slew of them. He was let go because he didnāt have a degree in lieu of the other fellows, and challenged management, which had capable engineers but no where near the talent this gentleman had. He backed us guys up and knew right from wrong. I will only refer to him as āGeneā. Bouchard would have benefitted by his employment,but Morty would not tolerate a man that stood up for himself and the fleet. Maritrans lost a good one. He disagreed with the rebuilding concept of double hulling old barges, and was of the opinion newbuild would save the fleet. You see what happened there in their fleet. Morty did do newbuilds, but severe mismanagement is the result we see today.
SUNY Maritime has just named the e-navigation Lab for Hornblower. It is now the Hornblower e Navigation Lab.
In a later announcement, they have just named the 1st year Accounting/Economics course the
Morty Bouchard Accounting/Economics Course. Classes will be held in the as yet uncompleted Morty Bouchard building. Completion has been held up as some contractors have not been paid.