Does anyone have experience/info about the Crowley CPRS fleet?
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There’s some old threads here about this topic. Basically a typical lower end paying SIU contract on old junker tugs. Lots of gripes about getting off on time and getting beaten up by wx in those old threads if i recall. Would be good to hear some updated info, because last i heard crowley had serious plans of phasing out the tugs and barges on this run and using ships.
Last I heard the Crowley Jacksonville to San Juan run is all ships now. I heard they are keeping a few tugs and barges for Hurricane relief jobs. The Philadelphia to San Juan run might still be the old but awesome Invader Class tugs.
There are some local PR tug companies that are very very low paying with old junk tugs.
Signet has a Jacksonville to PR run. So does Dawn Services.
I wouldn’t call a Jacksonville to PR run “working in PR.”
Any of those companies probably need warm bodies with a license for that run. Other than weather, which can be terrible at times, it’s an easy run.
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The CPRS fleet is being eaten up by COS. (Crowley offshore services). The alert class tugs have been sent to COS to work on the wind farm jobs. The invaders are going the way of the dodo. Pay for an AB is $430-440, Mate pay is around $630 a day. The rotation is 5/5 weeks on off, its SIU inland.
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I have a engineer friend working for signet on that run. He seems to be happy there and they are paying engineers competitively. Didn’t know that Dawn had a boat on that run.
Is that 2nd mate pay?
Yeah, that’s the pay for a “2nd mate”. All the mates are 1600T, and your a “3rd” mate if you new to towing and don’t have your towing endorsement yet, then they bump you up.
Does the “3rd Mate” without a towing endorsement stand a watch, or are they a trainee or similar?
They stand a watch with the C/M, and train up to get their Towing endorsement. Once that happens, then they stand a watch.
I believe that most of the Invaders have been sold or scrapped by now. Sad, really, but time marches on.
Granted it was a very long time ago when I sailed for Crowley and as an engineer, too. I started as a “trainee engineer” since the Invaders only carried one engineer at the time. I don’t recall what their training was for mates, and really not sure that they had a program at the time. The Captain, Chief Mate and Second Mate all stood watches. Not even sure where they would put an additional mate, other than in the Engineer’s extra bunk, or maybe with the cook.
Thats definately competitive with other companies. Great to hear.
The Invaders are about 50 years old. I’ve heard that Crowley has one in service on the Philly to San Juan run, and a couple more cold stacked, but I don’t know how accurate that is.
Awhile ago, I passed a boat that looked like an Invader, but was actually the forerunner Sea Swift Class, just a tad smaller with 5750hp.
About 10 years ago, I made a trip on single screw Daring Class tug. She’s still around, now at least 60 years old, and poorly maintained. It was a nice trip, but she was thin and we had to use a little splash zone.
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Last I heard they had some laid up in Lake Charles.
Unless they’ve laid up more there in the past few years that’s no longer true.
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Explorer is still running a regular run into port Everglades I believe from jax. Sporting a fresh Crowley color scheme
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Tanx for the info
They pulled the Defender back out and I think the Adventurer is on its way. I think they wished they kept a few more. Patriarch and Defender are currently on the Philly run. Good ol’ reliable boats. Quality with little technology. Some of the best boats ever built.
Island Explorer out of Seattle is the old Pathfinder. Looks good with that light blue paint scheme. Still working past the 50 year mark.
“Explorer is still running a regular run into port Everglades I believe from jax. Sporting a fresh Crowley color scheme”
Not true. All of Crowley’s regular runs into Port Everglades are foreign flag vessels. Occasionally they will run a barge to repo empties between JAX and Port Everglades. Tug Explorer was in Port Everglades back in July for a one time Cuba run.