Mississippi Marine Corp., circa 1970.
A brief history of Mississippi Marine Corporation
Mississippi Marine Corporation started out as a “C” corporation in October 1972 as Mississippi Marine Towboat Corp. The original stockholders were D. John Nichols, the John H. Cox family, the Walter L. Choate family and the T.R. Pittman family. Cox, Choate, and Pittman were existing partners in another corporation called Mississippi Marine Corp. Cox was the active member of the group in the marine industry, with Choate, a local furniture store owner, and Pittman, a local farmer, being passive investors.
Nichols, while working his way through college in the mid to late 1950’s, had worked as a welder/fitter for Cox and other shipyards in the Greenville area. He additionally worked for Cox as a towboat engineer on the river. Nichols’ most recent employment prior to becoming a partner in Mississippi Marine Towboat Corp. was as plant manager of Ben Pearson Archer Company, which was owned by The Brunswick Corporation.
After incorporation, Mississippi Marine Towboat Corp. subsequently acquired the shipyard assets of Mississippi Marine Corp. and utilized those assets to construct inland marine boats and barges, specializing in mid-size towboats. Over the years, the company bought back its stock from the Cox and Choate families, leaving only D. John Nichols and T.R. Pittman as company directors.
On July 28, 1986, the company changed its’ name from Mississippi Marine Towboat Corp. to Mississippi Marine Corporation.
T.R. Pittman passed away in late January 1996, and pursuant to Stock Purchase Agreements, D. John Nichols purchased all of the Pittman family’s interest in Mississippi Marine Corporation. Mississippi Marine’s by-laws were subsequently changed to reduce the number of directors to one.
D. John Nichols passed away in September 2018. His wife, Melinda Nichols, subsequently became director of the company. The operations of the company are managed by its President, Steven R. Millwood.
The company’s North Yard and main office, 1974 and 2020
From new construction to towboat and barge repair
In April 1976, Mississippi Marine Corporation completed construction of a 2500 ton drydock, leading the company to move beyond new construction into marine repair.
Mississippi Marine Corporation entered off-shore (blue water) construction in September 1977 when it started construction of a 112' x 26' off-shore utility vessel. The company subsequently built several off-shore vessels; the most sophisticated being the M/V Geo Tide, a 150' geophysical vessel.
In 1979 Mississippi Marine Corporation completed construction of its second drydock, with a capacity of 1750 tons.
In December of 1985 Mississippi Marine Corporation completed construction and began use of its third drydock with a 3600 ton capacity.
In early 1986, the company started operating a gas freeing and cleaning facility (the company’s “South Yard”) with equipment it purchased during the latter part of the previous year. The cleaning facility’s primary purpose is to clean liquid cargo barges, boat bilge, and fuel tanks so that hot work can be done on those vessels.
In 2000, Mississippi Marine Corporation acquired the assets of Greenville Shipbuilding, which added a 2000 ton drydock, a 4000 ton drydock, a full service machine shop, two floating crane barges, two harbor boats and other shipyard related equipment to our operation. This equipment became the company’s “Central Yard”.
In 2021 and 2022, the Corporation completed construction of two new 4000 ton drydocks, making for a total of six drydocks currently being operated by the company.