175 Years of Spanish Shipowning

In the early 1920s, whilst still a young man, Vicente Boluda Mari (1904-2000) purchased a tugboat in Valencia using a family inheritance and with the help of a business partner. The port of Valencia was growing rapidly at this time with the constantly expanding export cargoes of oranges, and Vicente Boluda Mari soon purchased more tugs. His son, Vicente Boluda Crespo, was born in 1929 and followed his father into the tugboat business, having studied at Hermanos Maristas College to learn the shipping industry. The grandson of the founder, Vicente Boluda Fos, was born on 31st March 1955, and entered the towage and salvage business in the early 1970s. Typical harbour tugs in the Boluda fleet at this time were Ursus Quinto (1960), Furia (1966), Boluda Primero (1971), Boluda Segundo (1972), Boluda Tercero (1973), Boluda Cuarto (1975), Boluda Quintoa (1976), Boluda Sexto (1977), Boluda Huit (1981), Boluda Nou (1982) and Boluda Veintitres (1984). Boluda Towage also acted as agents for the fleet of tugs owned by Remolques del Mediterraneo S.A., for which the former Southampton tug and passenger tender Calshot of 488 grt, built by Thornycroft in 1964, became Boluda Abrego in 1992 and worked as a supply tender in the Mediterranean.