TradeWinds Towing extends life of 43-year-old tugboat 

TradeWinds Towing has extended life of its 1982-built tugboat, Miss Lis, to prepare it for tackling more advanced coastal and offshore towage work in the US Gulf. 

This 24.9-m tug visited Main Iron Works in Houma, Louisiana, during Q3 2025 for life-extension work and renewal of its fendering and towage equipment. 

According to TradeWinds Towing president Dominique Smith, the shipyard replaced old towage equipment with a SMATCO 46/34 anchor-handling winch and added a new doghouse, pop-up pins and fenders from Schuyler Maritime, and renewed tonnes of steel on Miss Lis. 

It sailed from the shipyard to Morgan City at the end of September to restart contract work. 

"It is good to have Miss Lis back working. It is a shallow-draught anchor-handling machine now,” said Capt Smith.  

He thanked Main Iron Works and Southern Marine & Repair for work on this 147-gt, US-flagged vessel. 

Miss Lis has a beam of 8.6 m, a loaded draught of 2.7 m, plus equipment for emergency response, salvage and firefighting.  

New Orleans-headquartered Tradewinds Towing oversees a fleet of seven tugs built between 1970 and 1985 with bollard pulls ranging from 22 tonnes to 82 tonnes. These operate within the US Gulf, Caribbean and Latin America.