TowBoatUS Cobb Island

12/25/2025

Merry Christmas!

09/04/2025

Over the holiday weekend, a 43' Viking motor vessel caught fire off St. George Island. The fire burned the boat down to the waterline.

Thankfully, a distress call was made just in time, and the occupants were rescued with only minor injuries by Good Samaritans. Local fire rescue, Natural Resource Police, and the US Coast Guard all responded to the scene. Tragically, their family dog was lost in the fire.

We were assigned the task of locating and salvaging the vessel.
On Monday, our team located and marked the wreck, and by Tuesday, salvage operations were underway. With the boat burned so extensively, divers faced major challenges- finding lifting points strong enough to hold, dealing with heavy debris, and working around the vessel's settling into soft river mud.

Our crew preserved, raised the vessel, and safely delivered it to Dennis Point Marina. A big Thank You to the crew at the marina who stayed late to haul out the vessel.

06/08/2025

Today we wrapped up a multi-day salvage operation of a 37' Sea Line motor vessel from 83 feet deep off of Point Lookout in the Chesapeake Bay. This job came with its share of challenges. Locating the vessel- it was found nearly a half mile from the reported location. We were able to track it down using sonar and running grid patterns. Logistics- this salvage took detailed planning, gear, and coordination. Weather- we got lucky! The Bay doesn't always look like a pond, but calm conditions made a big difference. And most importantly- it all came together because of incredible team behind this effort. Huge thanks to the 7 top-notched guys who helped make this salvage a success.

05/18/2025

After 27 years in the salvage business, you'd think we'd seen it all- but today marked another first. We successfully raised a small seaplane that crashed just yesterday into the Potomac River, right off Dahlgren Naval Base. A huge shoutout to Capt. Shawn Mahaffey for tackling the dive work- especially with a snake and a snapping turtle keeping things interesting. We're also incredibly thankful to Machodoc Creek Marina & Cafe for providing the land-based support that made this recovery possible.

04/18/2025

Today's project for us. This one went as planned (that doesn't always happen) happy for the win. It's sad how many vessels are abandoned, leaving marinas to deal with the clean up.

09/07/2024

Long day, long night and even longer second day. This one fought us a bit. Special thanks to my diver and right hand man on this one, Shawn Mahaffey. He gets credit for the awesome time-lapsed video too. Also thanks to Terry Corrinne for your help.

08/23/2024

We're incredibly proud of our crew for their outstanding work yesterday! After several days of searching, planning, and waiting for the perfect weather and currents, we successfully raised a 28-foot boat from 36 feet of water off Mathias Point. This vessel sank last Saturday due to what looked like a broken hose. Thankfully, all occupants were rescued safely by a Good Samaritan and our local fire and rescue teams.

06/05/2024

New Camera systems installed on all our Towboats this year. This morning it captures Capt Shawn Mahaffey making what we do look easy, but of course this doesn't tell the whole story lol.

12/05/2023

Cobb Island Santa on the Water 2023

11/16/2023

11/08/2023

Congratulations Capt. Dan McClarren. Tonight Capt. Dan was presented the 2023 Association for Rescue at Sea Award at the annual C-Port conference in St. Petersburg, Florida.
On the night of July 4, 2023, while returning back to port from a previous tow call, Dan received an emergency alert on his phone from Charles County Fire & Rescue reporting a boat sinking with subjects in the water. Dan responded to the area and while searching for the subjects he noticed a small flashing light and headed in that direction. He found a man and a woman treading water while grasping to the bow of their sinking vessel. His wife Lin threw a ring buoy and life preservers to them. Dan got on the swim platform and reached a hand out to the woman who went under. He caught her hand and pulled her on board. Lin was able to assist the man to the swim platfom and he was brought on board the towboat as well. The small light Dan had seen was actually the woman’s cell phone flashlight. She had managed to keep the phone in her hands throughout the ordeal, they estimated being in the water for about an hour. The exhausted couple were taken to emergency personnel staged at a nearby dock. We are proud to have Dan as part of the JLK Marine team and grateful for his 20 plus years of towing for us.