Vane Brothers is celebrating its 125th anniversary in 2023, making it one of a small number of continuously operating, family-owned maritime businesses in the U.S. that can trace its roots back to the 19th century. From a distinguished past, the company has grown to become one of the nation’s premier marine transportation providers.
“I am thrilled and humbled to be part of such a proud legacy of perseverance and achievement,” says Vane President C. Duff Hughes, “especially considering the inherently unpredictable, complex, and ever-evolving nature of our industry.”
Hughes adds, “We never would have gotten where we are today without fostering important business relationships, assembling an amazing staff, and delivering a quality product time and time again. These are the factors that have allowed us to reach such a significant milestone.”
Vane Brothers started in 1898, as two enterprising brothers, Captains Burke and Allen Vane, established a ship chandlery in the Port of Baltimore. Their shop peddled everything from meats and beans to anchors and kerosene lanterns. In 1920, a distant cousin of the Vanes, Claude Hughes, joined the company and soon brought on board his younger brother, Charles Hughes Sr.
Together, the Vanes and Hugheses not only operated the chandlery but held interest in multiple, multi-masted schooners carrying supplies along the East Coast from Canada to the Caribbean. Vane Brothers was also part owner of a Baltimore shipyard that, after thriving for many years, was lost during the World War II era as the U.S. Navy condemned the property to allow for expansion of the Bethlehem Shipbuilding repair plant.
In the 1940s, the two Vane brothers left the business in the hands of Claude and Charles Hughes, who expanded operations by using a small motor tanker, Vane Bros., to supply galley oil to World War II Liberty ships in Baltimore.
Charles’ son, Charles Hughes Jr., joined the company in 1951 after serving in the U.S. Navy and graduating from Johns Hopkins University. Claude Hughes, at age 64, took that opportunity to retire.
In the 1970s, Vane Brothers added two more motor tankers, Duff and Anne, named for the children of Charles Jr. and Elizabeth Anne “Betsy” Hughes.
Upon his graduation from Denison University in 1980, C. Duff Hughes became a Junior Partner in the organization. Having amassed numerous hours of sea time on Vane vessels, he saw an opportunity for diversification in a maturing ship bunkering market. Fuel deliveries became a staple of the company’s service offerings, soon to be joined by a delivery service for marine lubricants.
The 1990s were particularly busy for Vane Brothers, as the Hugheses christened their first tug, the Elizabeth Anne, and added other vessels while taking bunkering operations to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Norfolk, Virginia. Vane also introduced a Marine Safety and Services division as a direct descendant of the original ship chandlery.
A “new vessel construction program” hit its stride in the early 2000s, resulting in dozens of the latest tugboats, double-hulled barges, and articulated tug/barge (AT/B) units. This set the stage for Vane’s bunkering operations to expand northward into New York Harbor and southward into Charleston, South Carolina.
By 2018, as Vane vessels took their first-ever trips through the Panama Canal to begin working on the West Coast, the company’s fleet consisted of 50 tugs and 80 barges. The employee roster had more than tripled since two decades earlier.
Vane’s move into California and the Pacific Northwest, which came at the request of two prominent customers, further solidified the company’s status as a premier marine transportation provider.
Vane vessels have since begun delivering asphalt throughout the Great Lakes Region of the U.S. and Canada. The distinctive Vane “V” is also seen on vessels operating as far south as Tampa, Florida; the Gulf of Mexico; and islands in the Caribbean Sea.
The growth of Vane Brothers from 1898 to 2023 can be overwhelming to consider, says Duff Hughes. “You can’t separate the great strides we have made over the last few decades from the incredible sacrifices and successes achieved in the early days by the company’s ‘founding fathers’ – the original two Vane Brothers and their cousins, the Hugheses. It was their hard work, adaptability, and commitment to the customer that always kept the company a step ahead of the competition.”
PHOTO CAPTION: Charles F. Hughes Jr., who joined his fahter in the family business in 1951, surveys the inventory at the chandlery, which, when this photo was taken, was located on East Pratt Street in Baltimore. [Photo by A. Aubrey Bodine - copyright Jennifer B. Bodine]
About Vane Brothers Founded in 1898, Vane Brothers is a Jones Act marine transportation provider operating along the U.S. East, West and Gulf coasts, in the Caribbean, and in the Great Lakes region. Headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland, the company provides a wide range of functions including bunkering, launch services, and safety equipment inspection. Operating nearly 50 tugboats and 80 barges, Vane Brothers sets the standard of excellence in the maritime industry with up-to-date equipment, well-trained crews and a commitment to safety.