E-mail

Tug o' My Heart : A towing dynasty

MARIAN BETANCOURT

Irish America Feature Writer

Published Thursday, June 4, 2009, 5:02 PM

Updated Thursday, July 23, 2009, 5:35 PM

Vote now - Buzz this up!

Read more: James McAllister, JP McAllister, Eamon de Valera, New York Harbor, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Cushendall, Brian McAllister, Jeffrey McAllister, Brooklyn Bridge

A.J. McAllister III, with his wife Vicky, son A.J. IV, and daughter Brooklyn christen a new tug in his daughter's honor in October 1999. Captain Brian McAllister looks on.

Photo by McAllister Towing

Photo gallery: Click here

When Brian McAllister was coming of age in the 1950s all he cared about was playing basketball and chasing girls. However, over the years, he became the heart and soul of the business his Irish ancestors built and he fought hard to keep it from sinking out of the hands of future generations.

Today McAllister Towing and Transportation Co., Inc. is one of the nation’s largest towing companies with operations in ports all over the East Coast and Puerto Rico. Captain Brian McAllister, now 76, directs the action from his corner office at the tip of Manhattan overlooking the harbor where so much of his family’s history happened. Working with him are two sons and three nephews steering future generations along in the family trade.

The First Generation

The story began in 1864 when James McAllister left Cushendall, County Antrim, to come to New York, then the largest Irish city in the world. His brothers Daniel and William soon joined him. Along with many other Irish families, such as the Morans, they found their calling in the water traffic of New York Harbor. Indeed there were so many tug boats in New York Harbor, they were known collectively as the Irish Navy. James began with a single-sail lighter (a vessel that moves cargo between pier and ship) and called it Greenpoint Lighterage Company after the Brooklyn neighborhood where he had settled. Expanding into towing, McAllister’s first tug boat began operating in 1876 while the Brooklyn Bridge was being built.

James had four sons and six daughters in his first marriage and all the sons grew up working in the business, along with an assortment of cousins and other relatives. One day in 1899, his oldest son, James P. (known as Captain Jim) stormed out of Greenpoint Lighterage to go into business for himself around the corner from his father and uncles, but the family soon reunited to form McAllister Brothers and move to new offices at South Street along Manhattan’s East River waterfront. In 1909 they acquired the Starin fleet of excursion steamboats with regular runs to Coney Island, the Statue of Liberty and Bear Mountain. When James died in 1916 he left the towing and lighter business to his sons from his first marriage and the steamboat business to his two brothers. After James’s first wife died, he remarried and had three more children, though none of them became involved in the business.

1 2 3 4 Next page >

Vote now - Buzz this story up!

RELATED ARTICLES
RELATED TOPICS

E-mail

Be the first to make a comment.

IrishCentral on Twitter

RELATED ARTICLES
RELATED TOPICS

MOST READ
MOST E-MAILED

Become a fan of IrishCentral.com on Facebook

One possible itinerary for an Ireland vacation is a trip along the Causeway coast from Belfast to Londonderry. Start off in Belfast, where you can visit the new entertainment complex, Waterfront Hall, as well as the Cathedral Quarter featuring St. Anne’s Cathedral. Want a little history in your Ireland vacation? When you leave Belfast, you can stop at Newtownabbey’s Loughshore Park, which is where the Titanic first sailed from the shipyards of Harland & Wolff. On an Ireland vacation, you can see sights almost a millennium old. Carrickfergus has a 12th-century Norman Castle. If you would like your Ireland vacation to have a literary theme, head to Kilroot, where Jonathan Swift, who would go on to write Gulliver’s Travels, worked as a minister. At the Glens of Antrim. Admire the waterfalls and be sure to take the Antrim Coast Road. If you are looking for some culture during your Ireland vacation, the village of Glenarm has both a castle and traditional folk music sessions. Cushendall features the red sandstone Curfew Tower, which is four stories high. The Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge spans a 24-meter chasm. Some Ireland vacations revolve around pubs. But on this itinerary, you get to go to the village of Bushmills, which is home to the world’s oldest licensed whiskey distillery. One of the most spectacular sights on your Ireland vacation will be the famous Giant’s Causeway, which is outside of Bushmills. Ireland vacations may also include history from other countries. Ships from the Spanish Armada sank along the rough coastline near the Giant’s Causeway. At Port na Spaniagh, divers recovered treasure from the Girona, one of the galleons of the Armada. The Mussenden Temple may have been inspired by Rome’s Temple of Vesta. Downhill, Benone and Magilligan Beaches are so long that you may find yourself alone on these dramatic beaches. Finish your Ireland vacation in Londonderry, which is the only completely walled city in the British Isles. The walls date from the 17th century.

Tug o' My Heart : A towing dynasty

Be the first to make a comment.

news

sport

entertainment

business

travel

advice

opinion

multimedia

roots

food & drink