Feature: Keeping the Port in Portland
We rolled into town on the last train north, arriving Portland, Maine at 2:00 a.m. Half an hour later we were at the dock, hauling our kit - and when Marine News travels light, we're like Hannibal crossing the Alps - over silent tugs resting abreast: Captain Bill, Justine McAllister, Stamford. On the phone a few days before, Capt. Brian Fournier had said something about leaving a light in Stamford's forward port cabin, and there, finally, it shone. But something brighter had caught our eye, and could we believe it? Last time we saw something like it, it was in Aberdeen, Scotland. Now, from Stamford's starboard rail, it loomed and glistened four hundred feet away - rising nearly as high - a pair of deep-sea drilling platforms, afloat waters barely up to their ankles.
Portland Tugboat and McAllister Towing - A Blended Family Business
On Thursday, March 14, Captain Arthur Fournier, founder of the 54-year old Portland Tugboat and Shipdocking Company, rocked the tugboat world when he, along with Captain Brian McAllister, founder of McAllister Towing and Transportation, announced that the two companies would merge together as one. According to an industry source, the announcement, which was made by the heads of both family-owned businesses at the Port of Portland Propeller Club's monthly meeting, defines a new generation in the growing tugboat industry. Also present for the announcement were president Brian McAllister's nephew, A.J., and sons Eric and Buckley, who will continue to serve in their current positions as vice presidents with the company.
The Fan(atic)
He loved Maritime Reporter so much that he failed a class project for it. Yes, it's true that when he was an eighth grader in Boston, Brian Fournier sadly realized that he received an "F" on a book report that he had written on MR for his English class. Fournier didn't receive his failing grade for his lack of knowledge on the subject or for "lying his way through the assignment" as his teacher thought. He did everything he was supposed to do - he read the material thoroughly sometimes six or seven times over, he had the basis of the industry down pat and he chose something that he was interested in. It was only until he realized that his "book" did not suit the task at hand.
