Campbell Towing Company.

• Position: Company Profile

Water transportation requires flexibility - as well as knowledge - to keep up with the shifting currents.

Campbell Towing prides itself on providing experienced, reliable service, whatever the marine towing needs.

Campbell Towing generally operates from points in southeast Alaska to the state of Washington. However, Campbell and its sister corporation Mogul Ocean Towing Ltd. have made many trips outside of their regular area and will continue to do so.

"Anywhere you want to go," owner Leonard Campbell says.

With $7.3 million in sales last year, Campbell tugs have towed fish processors to Japan, supplies to the North Slope and general freight from the West Coast to Honolulu.

The Campbell family's personal roots go back as far as the company's. "My father was a boatman from the time he was a young fellow himself," says Leonard, who has been towing for more than 50 years. "I started when I was 17."

Carl F. Campbell, Leonard's son, started even younger. Now in his mid-30s, Carl is the latest Campbell to enter the fray, serving as vice president of Campbell Towing and president of Mogul.

Leonard Campbell says his father began the business around 1940, but had to shut down for World War II when he couldn't repower his 50-hp boat because of the war's Priorities Act. So Leonard and his father both joined the U.S. Army Transport Service, stationed in southeast Alaska and the Aleutian Islands.

After the war, Campbell Towing got its repowering and grew from local jobs, like servicing pile drivers and towing fish-buying scows, to towing log rafts between Wrangell and Sitka.

In 1948, the company began working with the sawmill in Wrangell - a relationship that grew steadily over the years.

Today, Campbell Towing has 12 tugs based mainly in Wrangell, but also in Ketchikan and Seattle. The fleet includes five tugs in the 2,000-hp to 4,000-hp range. Also headquartered in Wrangell are divisions Mogul Ocean Towing Ltd. and HD Towing Co., a petroleum hauler.

The company's 50 employees live in Alaska and throughout the Northwest. Leonard Campbell says his workers range as far east as Florida, "due to...