Tmt Warehousing history

In 1912 a shipyard, later known as the Pacific Dry Dock and Repair Co., was built in Oakland for repairing Crowley vessels.

In addition, Crowley began operating San Francisco harbor tours on double-deck passenger boats he had built for the 1915 Exposition.

The Crowley fleet continued to expand after World War I, initiating tug and barge operations into Puget Sound and tugboat service into Los Angeles Harbor in the 1920s.

Crowley added bulk petroleum transportation to its list of services in 1939, and by the onset of World War II, the company had purchased the entire petroleum barge fleet of Shell Oil Company in San Francisco and was delivering petroleum to Shell storage facilities throughout the Bay Area.

Crowley achieved a major breakthrough in bulk barge transportation in 1948, when Crowley's United Transportation Co. began operating the first oceangoing bulk petroleum barge service on the Pacific Coast.

In 1956 United Transportation Co. started shipping large amounts of asphalt between Portland, Oregon, and Anchorage, Alaska.

Puget Sound Alaska Van Lines was formed in 1960, providing container and roll-on cargo service to Alaska.

Then in 1968, Crowley successfully managed the first of its annual Arctic sealifts to Prudhoe Bay.

The company started its Marine Oil Pickup Service (MOPS) in 1970.

In 1973 Crowley acquired an Alaskan trucking firm, Mukluk Freight Lines.

Crowley All Terrain Corporation (CATCO), a company that specialized in transporting supplies and personnel in the Arctic, through all sorts of weather, over all sorts of terrain, was also organized in 1975.

In 1981, in order to help meet the heavy lifting and hauling needs of its Alaskan land operations, Crowley acquired Shaughnessy and Company, based in Auburn, Washington.

American Shipper estimated that in 1982 the company earned $42.5 million profit on revenues of $550 million.

In 1984 TMT's Caribbean business benefited from the lengthening of five of its specially built triple-deck barges.

Crowley's revenues in 1987 were estimated between $700 million and $850 million.

A remarkable turnaround occurred for Crowley in 1989, thanks in part to the $40 million the company grossed from the rescue of the Exxon Valdez, the oil tanker that ran aground in Alaska, spilling its cargo in Prince William Sound.

These various government contracts helped raise Crowley's 1991 revenues to an estimated $1.1 billion.

In mid-1994 the top leadership of Crowley Maritime changed for only the second time in company history; at age 28, Thomas B. Crowley, Jr., was elected chairman, president, and CEO following the death of his father from prostate cancer.

In 1995 the San Francisco local of the International Longshore & Warehouse Union refused to allow Crowley Maritime to reduce crew sizes by one, prompting the company to pull its tugboats and ships out of its home port, after 100 years operating there.