In 1932, Lew Russell, Sr., became interested in the river transportation of industrial commodities and began renting steam-powered sternwheel ships to move customer products from port to port. Throughout the ensuing years Lew set the framework of Tidewater Barge Lines and ten years later, in 1942, the Tidewater-Shaver Transportation Company was established. In 1960, Tidewater became a full-fledged, independent tug and barge transportation company under the name of Tidewater Barges Lines.

In 1951, Ray Hickey got a job as a deck hand on a Tidewater tugboat. After spending his first four years on the Leland James, Ray transferred to the ocean division and became the chief engineer on the Tillamook, Tidewater's first ocean-going tugboat. In 1967, Ray became the operations manager of the ocean division and then was promoted to general manager in 1970, overseeing both ocean and river operations. He became president of Tidewater in 1977.

From 1974 to 1996, the company would add tugboats Captain Bob, Defiance, Invader, Outlaw, Maverick, Tidewater, Sundial, the Chief and Hurricane, while adding over twenty grain and grain/petroleum combination barges, petroleum barges Glenn, Atlas, Pioneer, Explorer, and Prospector, as well as a number of container and deck barges.

Tidewater purchased both Knappton's and Columbia Marine Lines' assets in 1984 and 1987, respectively, adding the boats Rebel and Challenger to the fleet, plus thirty grain barges and several general-use barges.

Tidewater Terminal Company was established in the early 1950s to support the barge transportation business. Terminals at Vancouver WA, Umatilla OR, Pasco WA and Clarkston WA were built to receive and deliver bulk liquid products to and from barges. Beginning in the late 1970s additional Terminal facilities were constructed or operated by Tidewater Terminal Company at Clarkston WA, Pasco WA, Boardman OR and Vancouver WA to handle containerized cargo and wood chips.

The Snake River Terminal was rebuilt in 1995, with a new automated truck rack, additional petroleum storage and upgraded pump and piping systems.

In 1996, Ray Hickey sold Tidewater, now the largest inland tug and barge company west of the Mississippi, to an East Coast investment group.

Wes Hickey served as president of Tidewater from 1996-1999. During this time the petroleum barge Tri-Cities Voyager was built.

Stephen Frasher served as president from 1999-2003.

Raymond Kiive served as president from 2003-2004.

In 2005, members of Tidewater's management team in partnership with equity investor Endeavor Capital bought Tidewater. Dennis McVicker is president & CEO.

During the period of 2005-2008, four new double-hulled petroleum barges were built: New Dawn, New Endeavor, New Vision and New Frontier.

In 2008, Tidewater purchased Foss Maritime's upper river assets which consisted of 2 tugs, 7 grain barges and 13 bin and flat deck barges.

Tidewater announces partnership with new equity investor, Stonepeak Infrastructure Partners in December 2012. In June 2013, Bob Curcio joined Tidewater as its new President & CEO.

Tidewater awarded contract to build 3 new tugboats to Vigor Fab in Portland. The first new tug, Crown Point, was delivered on April 20, 2015. The vessel's Christening took place on June 27, 2015. The second towboat, Granite Point, was delivered December 2015. The third towboat, Ryan Point, had its keel laying on April 21, 2015. Ryan Point's construction is well-underway and estimated delivery is the middle of 2016. The joint christening of the Granite and Ryan Point took place June 11, 2016. 

In September of 2017, Tidewater acquired Canada-based Island Tug and Barge, and ITB Subsea.

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In January, 2019, Upper Bay Infrastructure Partners, Ullico, BlackRock, Silverfern, and certain other co-investors acquired Tidewater Transportation and Terminals from Stonepeak. Upper Bay Infrastructure Partners is an independently-owned private investment firm focused primarily on diversified North American infrastructure private equity investments.

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On January 16, 2020, Tidewater's Board of Directors announced Todd Busch as the company's new President and Chief Executive Officer. 

Company Profile

Executive Management Team

Todd Busch

President & Chief Executive Officer

Todd Busch was named Tidewater's President and CEO in January 2020. Todd retired from Crowley Maritime Corporation in 2019, as Senior Vice President & General Manager, reporting directly to Tom Crowley, company chairman, president and CEO.  Todd was with Crowley for more than 32 years, and held positions with many of the company’s business units including Government Services, Jensen Maritime, Vessel Management Services, Marine Solutions, Harbor Services and Titan Salvage.

  Collectively these business units encompassed naval architecture and marine engineering; vessel construction management; facilities management; offshore engineering; project management, ship assist & escort, salvage & wreck removal, ship management and government contracting.  In addition, he served as chairman of the board for Ardent Global, the emergency response & marine services company, owned jointly by Crowley and Svitzer.

Todd joined Crowley as an ordinary seaman in 1986 and earned his masters’ license working aboard company tugboats and salvage vessels. He came ashore in 1994 as a tug dispatcher and has held a variety of positions with increasing responsibility. In 2002, Busch was awarded the Thomas B. Crowley trophy, the highest honor a Crowley employee can receive.

Todd represented Crowley in the International Salvage Union (ISU) for over 12 years and served on the executive committee for 10 years. In 2009, he was elected to President of the ISU, a position he held until September 2011.

Todd has also served as a director of the Clean Pacific Alliance, director of the Marine Response Alliance, executive member for Americas of the American Bureau of Shipping, executive committee member for Americas at DNVGL, as well as a founding executive committee member of the American Salvage Association. 

Prior to joining Crowley, Todd sailed on vessels for the Southwest Alaska Pilots Association, and attended Arizona State University where he studied architecture.

He has been married to his wife Coreen, for over 30 years. They have two children, Britney a graduate of the University of Alabama, and the University of Washington Law School, and Garrett, a graduate of Florida State University.

Jim McGovern

Vice President, Chief Financial Officer & Business Development

Jim McGovern was named Tidewater’s Vice President, Chief Financial Officer & Business Development in May 2017 and is a member of Tidewater’s Executive Management Team.

At Tidewater, Jim is responsible for leading the finance, information technology, treasury and risk management operations.  Additionally, Jim works closely with the Executive Management Team to identify and pursue acquisitions that complement the company’s overall growth strategy.

Jim comes to Tidewater with over 30 years of domestic and international business experience primarily in manufacturing and distribution. Prior to joining Tidewater, Jim was the Chief Financial Officer for the Neil Jones Food Company, a large privately held food processing business with facilities employing over 2,500 employees and distribution operations across North America. Prior to that, Jim worked in the metals recycling industry for Schnitzer Steel Industries from 2004 – 2012. As Director for Business Development and Integration, Jim helped drive Schnitzer’s merger and acquisition activities by identifying and valuing target companies, overseeing integration and working with the acquiring business unit to achieve the expected financial returns.

Jim also spent time in the building products industry with Louisiana-Pacific Corporation from 1995 – 2004.  He held various operating roles, including business unit general management, product development and controller for the Oriented Strand Board business after starting on their internal audit team. He began his career in finance as a Plant Controller with Georgia Pacific Corporation after which he worked for the Black and Decker Corporation as an internal audit manager.

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Jim received his undergraduate degree in accounting and marketing and his MBA from the University of Portland.

William H. (Bill) Collins

Vice President - Environmental, Health, Safety, and Security

Bill Collins was named Tidewater’s Director of EHS&S in April 2012. Bill oversees the company’s environmental, health, safety, security and quality programs and is also a member of Tidewater's Executive Management Team.

Bill brings 18 years of experience managing regulatory compliance to Tidewater. Prior to joining Tidewater, Bill managed compliance for ConocoPhillips' petroleum storage/distribution terminals and pipeline 

facilities in Oregon and Washington. He has also held the position of senior scientist/compliance specialist with several earth and environmental consulting firms in the Pacific Northwest. His experience includes multi-media environmental compliance and reporting, auditing EHS policies, procedures and regulations, and supporting operations through permitting marine structure construction and repair, maintenance dredging, and pipeline installations and reroutes.

At Tidewater, the EHS&S department is the steward of the company’s strategic goal of incident free operations, and to this end, Bill has focused his group toward implementing a behavioral-based safety management system, developing a Comprehensive Management System to manage the company’s policies and procedures, developing an electronic task-based compliance management system to ensure regulatory compliance, and compiling and tracking a list of EHS&S key performance indicators for evaluating continuous improvement.

Bill has a Bachelor of Science degree from Radford University and Master of Science degrees from the University of Florida and the University of New Orleans emphasizing geophysics and hydrogeology. He is also a licensed geologist/hydrogeologist in Washington, Oregon, and Florida.

Our Employees

Achieving our goals starts with a firm foundation, and we believe that our employees really do make the difference. Tidewater employs over 300 full-time personnel. Our staff encompasses a wide variety of areas in the maritime, terminal, and ship-cleaning business, including administrative, operations, maintenance, safety/environmental, finance, human resources, and vessel crews.

We are proud of our team of talented, dedicated and skilled employees. Many of our employees have over 20 years of employment experience within our company. This record of extraordinary tenure is a testament to our dedication toward our customers, each other and our company's guiding principles of operation.

Community Involvement

Tidewater is proud to carry on its long standing commitment to charitable giving and non-profit support. In addition to our corporate charitable giving program, Tidewater has an employee matching program that is designed to acknowledge and support our employees’ commitment to charitable giving and helps their donations make an even bigger impact to the non-profits that are important to them.

Tidewater's giving program has supported several organizations in our community including:

• American Red Cross of SW Washington

• Boys and Girls Club

• Clark County Parks Foundation

• Clark County Historical Museum

• Columbia River Maritime Museum

• Columbia Springs Environmental Center

• Friends of Ridgefield National Wildlife

• Meals on Wheels

• Oregon Maritime Museum

• Ray Hickey Hospice House

• Share House

• Special Olympics

• Vancouver Rotary Foundation

• YWCA