A US owner is expanding its towage fleet with newbuilds as demand surges for handling tankers in energy terminals
Master Boat Builders in Coden, Alabama, has delivered Saturn as the first H500 series tugboat it has built for US owner Suderman & Young Towing.
These 30-m vessels are being built for the Texas, US-based owner as high-performance escort tugs to ABS class and Robert Allan Ltd’s RApport 3000 design.
Saturn has accommodation for six crew members, a beam of 13 m, a bollard pull of more than 93 tonnes and a top speed of 13 knots.
Propulsion consists of two four-stroke diesel engines with a combined power of 5,220 kW, compliant with the US Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Tier 4 emissions standards, driving two azimuth thrusters, supplied by Steerprop on the stern.
Master Boat Builders president, Garrett Rice, said Saturn “continues to raise the bar in escort tug capability” and was built under a “long-standing relationship” with Suderman and Young.
“Saturn is a testament to what is possible when expert shipbuilding meets forward-thinking design,” he said.
It is built to support very-large crude carriers and gas carriers calling at the growing number of hydrocarbon export terminals along the US southern coastline and has a FiFi1 firefighting system, and tankage for 44,342 gallons of fuel oil.
Suderman & Young provides harbour and marine towing services along the US Gulf Coast, serving the ports of Houston, Galveston, Texas City, Freeport, Corpus Christi, Brownsville, and Port Isabel, all in Texas.
