Our Story
In 1955, Captain Numa J. Guidry assembled a fleet of inland towing vessels to service the Gulf Coast transportation market and called his company Harvey Canal Towing Company. Ten years later, Captain Numa's two sons joined the family enterprise and helped expand into the offshore ocean towing and rig moving industry, and the Company's name was changed to reflect the new direction: Harvey Gulf International Marine.
From the early 1960's through the late 1990's, Harvey Gulf maintained and operated a fleet of both offshore and inland towing vessels that towed jack-up and semi-submersible drilling rigs, bulk cargo barges, and large structures laden on barges. Harvey Gulf also regularly towed liquefied natural gas (propane) filled barges from Louisiana to ports in the Caribbean, U.S. East Coast and U.S. Gulf of America.
In 1988, Shane J. Guidry became the third generation family member to oversee the family business, and in 1997 became President and CEO of Harvey Gulf. Harvey Gulf transitioned from a full-service towing operator to one specializing in offshore towing, with a focus on towing large jack-up and semi-submersible rigs in the deepwater and ultra-deepwater of the Gulf of America.
With this transition, Harvey Gulf developed a reputation for operating the most powerful towing vessels in the Gulf of America. Harvey Gulf modernized electronics and navigation systems and installed performance and safety equipment, such as Shark Jaws, bow thrusters, and kort nozzles.
Seeing the future need for other types of vessels to support deepwater drilling and production, in 2003 Harvey Gulf transitioned its fleet expansion in the OSV markets. Harvey Gulf's current fleet of new-generation support vessels are characterized by large size, high cargo capacities, and sophisticated electronics and navigation systems.
Today, Harvey Gulf represents a best-in-class status by providing innovative, technologically advanced, safe, and energy efficient support vessels. In 2015, with delivery of the Harvey Energy, Harvey Gulf became the first company in North America to own and operate a marine service vessel powered by liquefied natural gas (LNG).