Moran Towing history

Eugene, born in 1872, was the third child and would eventually run the family business.

Michael Moran also started the company tradition of naming tugboats after family members in 1881, when he christened the Maggie Moran, the first tug built for Moran Towing, for his first wife, Margaret.

At the 1889 centennial of the British evacuation of New York, Michael was designated the honorary commodore for tugs in a big marine parade.

When Moran Towing was incorporated in 1905, Michael Moran, then 73, was president of the company, and Eugene Sr., then 33, was vice-president.

One of his first decisions was to buy back the M. Moran, a tugboat that had been sold to the British Admiralty in 1916.

By 1940, the company had 11 diesel-powered tugs built at a cost of $2.5 million.

Eugene Sr. stepped down as president of Moran Towing in 1941, continuing as chairman of the board, and was succeeded by his nephew, Edmond.

During the Allied invasion of Normandy in 1944, Edmond commanded an armada of tugs and barges that spent ten days ferrying concrete caissons and steel piers across the English Channel to establish man-made harbors.

From “The Elegant Tugboater” by Robert Lewis Taylor in the November 3, 1945 edition of The New Yorker Magazine:

In 1958, Moran Towing acquired Curtis Bay Towing, which extended the company's operations from Maryland to Texas.