If there is a credit crisis in Baltimore, it sure must have passed by the door of Vane Brothers on Frankfurst Ave.rnThis century-old company has just completed a 15-boat new-building contract with Thoma-Sea Boat Builders of Louisiana, but it is only partway through an additional six-boat building contract with Chesapeake Shipbuilding of Maryland. And the company may not be done after that. While all this is going on, Vane Brothers has accepted deliveries of a flotilla of new barges from Trinity Industries and Jeffboat, whilernalso accepting a pair of completed 140,000-barrel ATB units from Bay Shipbuilding in Wisconsin.rnSassafras and Elk River are the first two tugs in a series of six to be completed by Chesapeake Shipbuilding in the next year or two. They are 94-foot, 3,000 hp, Caterpillar-powered conventional twin-screw tugs designed to handle either a 30,000-bbl oil barge or one of the company's larger 50,000-bbl barges. These tugs are designed to move barges up tributaries of Chesapeake Bay and into other near-coastal spots along the Eastern Seaboard. They are also intended forrnbunkering work in ports like Philadelphia and New York, and for near-coastal wire tows along the East Coast or beyond.
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