Ellicott Dredges, founded in 1885, celebrated its 125th anniversary by taking a dinner cruise around the Port of Baltimore aboard the turn of the century paddlewheel riverboat The Black-Eyed Susan. The Port (which Ellicott's predecessors helped create in the 1700s with the first dredge, a two horse power-driven machine) has written a feature story about Ellicott Dredges in the latest edition of its magazine. The article appears in the September/October 2010 issue.
Almost 150 people celebrated Ellicott's 125th anniversary including employees, customers, board members, investors, and government officials. Johansson noted that Ellicott's founding coincided with the arrival of the Statue of Liberty from France as well as the founding of AT&T.
The Governor of Maryland, the honorable Martin O'Malley, issued an official citation honoring the company as the world's oldest and largest cutter dredge builder, and the Mayor of Baltimore, Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, praised Ellicott for its "prominent role in maintaining Baltimore's steady flow of commerce" and for facilitating "global unhindered passages."
These remarks followed US Commerce Secretary Gary Locke's comment during a plant visit earlier this year that Ellicott is "an iconic exporter."
Ellicott's President, Peter Bowe, attributed Ellicott's longevity to four factors:
1. Building good products
2. Serving customers well
3. Having good people and management
4. Having adequate capital to back it all up
Bowe said "the Ellicott community should be proud of our success," but reminded that "there's never room for complacency."
Ellicott has delivered literally thousands of dredges around the world since it built all the dredges used in the original construction of the Panama Canal and continues to exceed the expectations of its customers worldwide.