As the employ­ee with the most years of ser­vice at The Great Lakes Tow­ing Com­pa­ny, Duluth-based Tug Cap­tain, Dean Olson, under­stands how to achieve suc­cess on behalf of cus­tomers, even in the most chal­leng­ing of conditions.

“It’s about team­work. Work­ing in harsh win­ter con­di­tions where there is extreme ice break­ing need­ed is prob­a­bly the most chal­leng­ing thing about this job. It takes a lot of time and hard work to break through ice. It requires an expe­ri­enced crew and a lot of hard work.”

Last win­ter pre­sent­ed The Tow­ing Com­pa­ny with extreme con­di­tions on the Great Lakes. The work was intense, demand­ing and con­stant. But, accord­ing to Olson, also extreme­ly ful­fill­ing: “It’s reward­ing to help boats go where they need to go, to see how hard these tugs work and to be a part of it.”

Olson began his mar­itime career in 1972. “I didn’t know the bow from the stern. But, I learned quick­ly — every­one was will­ing to help you out, to teach you,” he says. Every­one, includ­ing his father who also worked for The Tow­ing Com­pa­ny. “It was a good thing to work with my father. He had a lot of patience with me,” Dean chuckles.

Around that time he was pri­mar­i­ly work­ing as part of the crew on Tug ARKANSAS. For the first time in over 40 years he will return to Tug ARKANSAS this win­ter. The Tow­ing Company’s exten­sive fleet over­haul pro­gram, com­plet­ed this sum­mer, includ­ed upgrades to Tugs ARKANSAS and INDIANA.

When asked if The Tow­ing Com­pa­ny is ready for this winter’s con­di­tions he states: “We are def­i­nite­ly pre­pared for anoth­er bad win­ter, should that hap­pen.” As for what makes The Tow­ing Com­pa­ny the best in class: “Through­out the company’s long-stand­ing his­to­ry we have offered a lev­el of pro­fes­sion­al­ism that is greater than that of com­peti­tors. We have many full-time crew mem­bers, which means con­sis­ten­cy along with 24/7 sup­port for customers.”

The Tow­ing com­pa­ny has a long-stand­ing rela­tion­ship with the Port of Duluth as well as with its com­mu­ni­ty. Its expe­ri­ence tow­ing ves­sels in this area is unpar­al­leled. And when win­ter comes on the Great Lakes, as Olson says, “There’s absolute­ly no sub­sti­tute for experience.”

Uti­liz­ing a Full-Ser­vice Lakes-Wide Tow­ing Con­tract with the Tow­ing Com­pa­ny pro­vides added insur­ance. It’s an added lev­el of safe­ty and sea­man­ship to pro­tect your crew, equip­ment, and the envi­ron­ment; wher­ev­er your ves­sel may call on the Great Lakes.