Crowley Maritime Corporation acquired Titan Maritime LLC, a worldwide salvage company based in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., in 2005. The company is now known as Titan, a Crowley company. Crowley’s Todd Busch, who joined Titan as vice president, works closely with Titan founder David Parrot and his long-time partner Dick Fairbanks.

At the time of the acquisition, Tom Crowley Jr., chairman, president and CEO of Crowley Maritime, said "The new company will take advantage of the experienced personnel, specialized equipment and proven track record at Titan, and the large tug and barge fleet, diversified business lines, and financial strength of Crowley, to grow the business."

Titan was founded in 1980 by David Parrot.  His life on the sea started in 1945 in Newfoundland, when he moved aboard his father's schooner at the age of 6 weeks.  His involvement with the sea has been virtually continuous ever since.

Titan started as an undercapitalized, one-tug towing firm, struggling to expand and make a name for itself.  In 1982, Titan’s tug “NESTOR” and her crew were hired as sub-contractors to assist one of the Dutch firms on a salvage/wreck removal in the Caribbean.  When the job was no longer economically feasible for the Dutch firm, Titan took over the operation (more as a challenge than from any point of business logic) and completed it.  This success was a milestone for the company, marking the first of a long series of salvages and wreck removal jobs, which continues to this day.  During the 80s the company acquired more tugs, barges and cranes, enabling it to build a regional salvage and wreck removal business in the Caribbean.

Dick Fairbanks joined the company in 1988.  He also has had a lifelong exposure to the sea and had made his living in the marine field for many years.  With a degree in Mechanical Engineering and years of employment with General Electric’s Marine Steam Turbine Division, he brought a high degree of technical expertise to Titan.  Equally important were his strengths in business and administration.  Fairbanks’ vision and recognition of the realities of scale led to Titan’s sale of its tugs and most of its floating equipment in 1992.  The decision to sell the floating equipment was part of a strategy to expand Titan’s operating area worldwide by using vessels of opportunity near the site of a casualty and by flying in Titan’s own expert salvors and specialized equipment.  Titan became independent of its own floating equipment and was able to incorporate the Senior Masters and Engineers into a highly trained and mobile salvage team.

Parrot and Fairbanks accelerated the company into the salvage field on a worldwide basis.  The company is headquartered in Pompano Beach, Fla., with offices in Newhaven, UK, and Sao Paulo, Brazil, and equipment depots in Batam, Indonesia, and Dubai, UAE.

Over the years, Parrot and Fairbanks found that it was often safer and more efficient to sub-contract certain highly specialized services than it was to provide those services themselves. People who work on certain types of problems every day know more about them than those who deal with them only occasionally.

This combination has proven to be the right approach for Titan and its clients, namely owners, underwriters and P&I Clubs. Today, the Titan/Crowley organization brings a high degree of flexibility, awareness, drive and willingness to finding a solution to any casualty or risk.