Ingram Barge Company

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Ingram Barge Company M/V PAT C at Chalmette, Louisiana.

The Ingram Barge Company is a barge company based in Nashville, Tennessee, United States.

According to the company website, Ingram operates nearly 4,000 barges with a fleet of over 80 linehaul vessels and over 30 tug boats. The company operates on the Mississippi River, Ohio River, Cumberland River, Tennessee River, Gulf Intracoastal Waterway, Kanawha River, Illinois River, and the Monongahela River. In 1994 Forbes Magazine listed Ingram as the 14th largest privately held company in the United States. Ingram Barge is part of the Ingram Marine Group, in turn part of Ingram Industries.

[edit] History

Ingram barge was founded in 1946 by Orrin Henry Ingram, originally mostly shipping petroleum for Ingram Industries.

In the 1960s Ingram diversified into hauling dry cargo as well.

Erskine Bronson Ingram inherited the company from his father Henry, and ran it until his death in 1995; since then Orrin H. Ingram III became the President and CEO. In Craig E. Philip became Ingram Barge CEO [1]. Orrin H. Ingram III remains Chairman. [2]

The ING 4727 in the ruins of the Lower 9th Ward of New Orleans. Note the school bus partially beneath the barge.

The most notorious Ingram barge is ING 4727, which landed in what had been a residential neighborhood of the Lower 9th Ward of New Orleans, Louisiana during Hurricane Katrina. It has been suggested that the ING 4727 was responsible for the major breach in the Industrial Canal from not being properly secured before the storm. The ING 4727 was under charter by Lafarge North America at the time of the hurricane and was consequently their responsibility to secure the barge.