Young Brothers started more than a century ago, in the earliest days of the Territory of Hawaiʻi. Since that time, Hawaiʻi has seen many changes. One thing that’s remained is the need for a reliable and cost-effective way to transport goods between the islands.
Our history stretches back to the year 1900, when the brothers Herb and William Young boarded a San Francisco schooner bound for Honolulu. Growing up in a maritime family in San Diego, the brothers were comfortable around the ocean. Within a year, they had set up a small but growing “bumboat” business, ferrying passengers and provisions around Honolulu Harbor. A third brother Jack soon joined them in Hawaiʻi.
Thirteen years later the firm was incorporated as Young Brothers, Limited, and expanded to provide ocean towing, rescue service and barge transportation between the islands. It was around this time that the pineapple industry began to take off. Growers needed a way to haul the fruit from Molokaʻi to Honolulu for canning, and Young Brothers landed the contract. This marked the company’s entry into the inter-island shipping business.
For a time, Young Brothers offered both harbor support and shipping services. To separate harbor operations and charter activities from Young Brothers’ inter-island freight operations, Hawaiian Tug & Barge was formed in 1961 as a sister company.
In 1999, the Seattle-based Saltchuk Resources, Inc. acquired Young Brothers and selected assets of Hawaiian Tug & Barge. Saltchuk is the parent company of Foss Maritime. In 2013, Hawaiian Tug & Barge was rebranded and incorporated into the Foss Maritime fleet, and Young Brothers remains a wholly own subsidiary of Foss.
Young Brothers’ Safety Management System has been certified by the American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) as being in compliance with the International Safety Management Code (ISM) and the American Waterways Operators (AWO) Responsible Carrier Program. We are also certified by ABS as an ISO 9001 company for quality management.