Interviewer(s): Jason Theriot

Affiliation: University of Houston

Jim Danos grew up on a farm in southeast Louisiana on Bayou Lafourche. He got involved in the tug boat industry through his father. Danos made his career hauling barges for the oil industry through the coastal waters of southeast Louisiana. He started a boat company with his wife in the 1950s to build and operate tug boats. Later, his family owned and operated company diversified into OSVs for the offshore industry. His three sons now run the business. Todd Danos is the youngest of three and runs Galliano Tugs.

Company history/significance: In the early days of the oil industry, operators hired locals who knew the waters to transport oil and supplies from the marshes and rigs to the refineries. They used small tug boats to push barges. As the jack-up boat/rig technology emerged, the industry moved from inland to offshore waters. This reciprocated a need for bigger, steel-hulled vessels to operate in deeper waters. Ship yards, such as Bollinger, began building work boats to service the industry. Boatmen, like Danos and others, had the knowledge and experience of the industry and owned and operated many of the vessels used by the oil companies in this new frontier. Men like Jim Danos designed these boats, while local ship yards, like Bollinger and Chouest, built them. The oil companies became the major customers for small family-owned boat companies who looked to their neighbors, the ship builders, to provide the labor and fabrication for these vessels in demand.