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Tallvine plans to expand Donjon fleet following acquisition
The salvage and marine fire-fighting US OPA 90 provider has become a growth asset for a Florida-based investment firm
Donjon Marine’s acquisition by a Florida, US-based investment group has highlighted the consolidation trend in the global salvage industry, especially involving US service providers.
Miami-headquartered Tallvine Partners has acquired Hillside, New Jersey-headquartered Donjon Marine as part of its strategy to build a marine infrastructure platform across North America.
Tallvine intends to keep the company’s existing management in place and provide finance to expand its marine, shipbuilding and salvage services.
This transaction is described as “a truly transformative moment” for Donjon Marine by Donjon Marine chief executive John A Witte, Jr.
According to Tallvine’s partners, this deal will lead to further investment in Donjon’s fleet and its expansion into new geographic markets.
Founded in 1964, Donjon provides emergency response, salvage, wreck removal and environmental remediation, plus dredging, heavy lift and towing using a fleet of more than 70 specialised vessels and 270 employees.
It maintains navigable waterways and accessible harbour infrastructure and supports the construction of marine infrastructure across the US. Its alliance with Smit Salvage, Donjon-Smit, is one of just three providers of salvage and marine fire-fighting under the US OPA 90 regulations, the other two being Resolve Marine and T&T Salvage.
Donjon Marine also has a processing centre for dredged spoil from New York and New Jersey harbours and a shipyard in the Great Lakes with a drydock and production areas.
“The launch of our marine infrastructure platform and acquisition of Donjon Marine underscore our commitment to investing in resilient, essential infrastructure that supports global commerce, advances environmental stewardship, and delivers stable, recurring cash flows,” says Tallvine Partners chief executive and partner Thomas Lefebvre.
Under Tallvine, Donjon Marine will continue to operate independently with John Witte as chief executive, supported by Thomas Witte and Paul Witte in the executive team.
“With a shared commitment to long-term investment, strategic growth, and innovation, we are poised to build upon Donjon Marine’s legacy, expand our reach, and continue to provide services to our clients while seizing exciting new opportunities in the marine industry,” says John Witte.
Outside marine, Tallvine focuses on middle-market infrastructure opportunities across the energy and utilities, transport and logistics, and communications sectors in North America.
“We view this acquisition and partnership as a highly compelling opportunity to build a leading marine infrastructure platform across North America,” says Tallvine partner Victor Sosa.
“We look forward to working closely with the team to pursue exciting initiatives, including expanding our geographic reach and service offerings, driving the growth and modernisation of our fleet, and executing strategic acquisitions in the sector.”
At the beginning of September 2025, Donjon Marine won an US$8.2M contract from the New York District of the US Army Corps of Engineers for maintenance dredging of the Bronx River federal navigation project. Donjon will dredge shallow sections of the river until January 2026 to facilitate safe navigation along this waterway.
One of Donjon’s most high-profile projects in the past two years was removing the wreckage of a Baltimore highway bridge that was struck and destroyed by container ship Dali in March 2024.
Q3 salvage cases
In North America, T&T Salvage successfully refloated a Royal Wagenborg-operated 14,695-gt general cargo ship after it grounded in the Franklin Strait off Prince of Wales Island, Canada. Thamesborg had initially run aground on 6 September in the Arctic shipping route and T&T Salvage was contracted under a Lloyd’s Open Form (LOF) to salvage this 2013-built ship.
Its salvage involved removing 4,500 tonnes of cargo onto two other ships, Silver Copenhagen and Nunalik, and then water from damaged ballast tanks was pumped onto multipurpose support vessel Botanica. Canadian tugs helped to refloat it before towing Thamesborg to a port of refuge under the supervision of the Canadian Coast Guard.
In Q3 2025, Resolve Marine was active in three salvage cases, one in Indonesia, another in Taiwan and a third in Vietnam. The global salvor recovered oil from tanks on a general cargo vessel that had capsized following a collision in Kupang, Indonesia.
Resolve hot-tapped into 15 tanks to remove 70 m3 of fuel while the vessel was sitting on its starboard side on a slope with the stern in around 40 m of water.
Oil was pumped to additional tanks on a supply tug that was previously fitted with diving and oil-removal equipment in Batam, Indonesia. After successfully completing this project, the supply tug returned to Batam for demobilisation and to offload the tanks for disposal in a certified facility.
In Vietnam, Resolve chartered local harbour tugs to help separate a container ship from a bulk carrier following a collision on the Long Tau River outside Ho Chi Minh City. After the ships were separated, the container vessel was taken to a safe anchorage for further assessments and Resolve was engaged by insurers to help remove cargo from the flooded holds of the bulk carrier.
In Taiwan, Resolve was appointed to extinguish an engineroom fire on a bulk carrier and help tow it to a repair yard in China. This ship suffered a fire in its engineroom while transiting towards a Chinese port. Resolve extinguished the fire and arranged for local tugs to tow it into the Port of Kaohsiung before towing it to the shipyard in Zhoushan.
In Q3 2025, three LOF cases were reported by Lloyd’s of London. In July, Five Oceans Salvage salvaged 2011-built product tanker Vilamoura in July after it suffered an explosion and fire while sailing 80 nautical miles off Libya. Its engineroom flooded and it lost power and manoeuvrability. A tugboat was dispatched, and the Marshall Islands-flagged ship was towed to Greece for repairs.
Also in July, Gelasakis Group’s Seagate Salvage helped to salvage 1994-built general cargo ship MN Kostas after it grounded on the northern coast of Crete, Greece. This Sierra Leone-flagged vessel was sailing to Lebanon with 14 crew and a cargo of gypsum when it grounded six nautical miles off Sitia. The Hellenic Coast Guard mobilised three patrol vessels and Sitia Port Authority sent a fishing vessel to the casualty. Three tugboats from Heraklion helped remove 37 tonnes of diesel fuel, lubricants, paints and the gypsum before MN Kostas sank and was reclassified as a wreck.
In the Dutch sector of the North Sea, a Multraship emergency tug had to secure a Singapore-flagged, 16,621-dwt product tanker managed by Berhard Schulte after it suffered engine failure.
Eva Schulte drifted towards Vattenfall’s Holland Kust Zuid windfarm when Multraship Protector secured a line to tow the 2010-built tanker to a safe anchorage for repairs.
In Turkey, Tanzania-flagged, 81-m general cargo ship Rapid ran aground off the coast of Kefken in adverse weather conditions on 18 September. In response, a boom was spread to prevent oil from the ship reaching the coastline while plans were formed to refloat the casualty.
The 28th International Tug & Salvage Convention, Exhibition & Awards will be held in Gothenburg, Sweden, in association with Caterpillar, 19-21 May 2026. Use this link for more details of this industry event and the associated social and networking opportunities.
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