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railroads — and constructed specialized bulk-shipping facilities
such as an ore pier, sulphur bins and a nitrate shed while it orga-
nized subsidiaries for stevedoring and warehousing.
In 1908, Canton residents uncovered the charred remains of a
130-foot-long clipper ship buried 400 feet inland from the current
shoreline that burned pierside; Canton’s Cannery Row handled
Shore produce — the Bay’s oyster harvest peaked in 1884 at 15
million bushels — and pineapples from the Bahamas.
The Curtis Bay Towing Company, which specialized in hand-
ling bigger vessels, was founded just in time to capitalize on bulk
carriers tied up at the new grain elevator built by the Western
Maryland Railroad at Port Covington.
There’s little to rival the compact horsepower and tenacity
tugboats bring to the job: Curtis Bay was bought by Moran Towing
in 1958. Moran has 13 locations from New Hampshire to Port
Arthur, Texas. McAllister Towing, whose fleet straddles 10 East
Coast ports and Puerto Rico, purchased Baltimore-based Baker-
Whitely in 1980. Tugs, besides berthing and offshore operations,
also have marine firefighting capability. America’s oldest operating
steam tugboat, the
Baltimore,
built at the Skinner yard in Fell’s Point
in 1906, is moored behind the Baltimore Museum of Industry.
24/7/365 x 300: The Port of
Baltimore never sleeps. Its
waterfront works night and
day, in good weather and bad,
like a 1950 snowstorm along
Pratt Street in the Inner Harbor.
Trucks provide drayage service
at the Long Dock next to the
city power plant. Today, the
area is devoted to restaurants
and other tourist attractions.
