Home
The Tenneco, a 72-year-old ship with a nautical past tied to entertaining the movers and shakers of yesteryear, is about to write a new chapter of providing good times for visitors.
Within a year, the 125-foot ferrocement boat will be towed to the Gulf of Mexico off Okaloosa County to become an artificial reef aimed at luring divers and tourists to an accessible site in relatively shallow waters.
Today, The Tenneco is a fading beauty rocking with the tide. It looks like a ferry, but there’s much more to this big, old ship than meets the eye.
Her peeling paint and deteriorating interior belie the luxurious and spacious accommodations enjoyed by many VIPs who were guests of the vessel’s first owner, the Tennessee Gas & Transmission Company, which formed in 1940. It was constructed in 1942 at St. Marks, where the company owned petroleum terminals. Cement was used because steel was scarce during World War II.
A spacious salon offered ample room for lounging, formal dining, dancing or gaming. In addition to small cabins, double aft master cabins included wood-paneled walls with four-post beds built into the walls. The large, open-air bow area featured shade and a mural, now obscured by the elements.
Like escalators, two narrow staircases led below deck to the full service galley, along with another large room that served as a separate meeting space.
Brown family legacy
Named The Tenneco after Tenneco, Inc., which acquired Tennessee Gas & Transmission Company in 1966, the ship continued to host select guests until she was declared surplus property in the 1980s.
It was then that Capt. Shirley J. Brown of Pensacola decided to buy The Tenneco.
The Brown family has been a fixture in the maritime industry throughout Northwest Florida for more than 56 years, having first incorporated in 1958 as Brown Marine Service Inc. in Pensacola.
Much of the 1970s business was petroleum transportation along the Gulf Coast in barges.
Brown Marine built a loyal customer base, as did the Browns’ Marina and Boatyard on Bayou Chico near Barrancas Avenue.
Brown Marine was also involved in the early development of artificial reefs in Okaloosa County through its transportation and placement of rail box cars. Documentation of Capt. Brown’s participation in those efforts is memorialized in the Destin History and Fishing Museum.
“My father bought The Tenneco simply because he liked her,” said son Ted Brown, a part owner of the family’s businesses.
As a recreational vessel, her purpose remained the same — to entertain guests.
“My father organized monthly chat-and-chew breakfasts aboard the vessel for tugboat captains, politicians and businessmen to get to know one another,” he said. “Work-related seminars were held aboard, and the family used her for holiday get-togethers and birthday parties.”
Shirley Brown was respected as much for making great cheese grits as he was for his maritime knowledge.
Brown died in 2005. Afterward, the family reorganized the businesses, including a name change to Pelicans Perch Marina & Boatyard and Brown Marine Supply.
More recently, the family decided it was time to let The Tenneco go.
After researching scenarios for keeping the vessel in Pensacola, including the once-envisioned maritime museum at the Community Maritime Park. Okaloosa County was contacted in 2012 and offered The Tenneco as an artificial reef in honor of Brown’s memory.
Perfect dive reef
Okaloosa County’s artificial reef program team grasped the potential of a relatively flat, large open boat that could serve two purposes.
Presently, only one artificial reef is available for open-water dive certification in Okaloosa County as set by the self-regulated dive industry — the Ms. Louise tugboat in the Gulf of Mexico off Crystal Beach.
By deploying The Tenneco in 60 feet of water, it would be accessible for diver certification and recreational divers. Its proximity to shore also would be a tourism draw. Private vessels, charter boats and kayaks would be able to access the reef.
The county’s Tourist Development Council recommended spending $75,000 in bed tax funds to cover the costs of towing, permitting, preparing and deploying the Shirley J. Brown Memorial Reef, as it will be known.
In June, the Shirley J. Brown Memorial Reef proposal was presented to the Okaloosa County Commission.
The board had four conditions that had to be met before approving the project, including removal of all hazardous material, U.S. Coast Guard seaworthiness certification, appropriate insurance coverage during the actual project, and a staging and mooring area during permitting.
In December, permits were submitted to Florida’s Department of Environmental Protection and the Army Corps of Engineers.
While the DEP permit is on track, Okaloosa County is still waiting for Corps of Engineers’ approval.
“The procedure for securing the final OK is more involved,” said Scott Henson, Okaloosa County Public Works program manager
And, interestingly, although Henson has done research using the vessel’s hull number, he has not been able to determine authoritatively whether the vessel ever had an engine.
“Deploying a concrete structure in the Gulf is much simpler than deploying a vessel,” Henson continued. A decision as to how to classify The Tenneco has not yet been made.
The Tenneco’s final resting place will be about 1.5 miles SSW of the Okaloosa Island Pier.
“Hopefully, she will be deployed before hurricane season 2015 or even 2014, but honestly, I just wish it would happen now,” Henson said. “She will be a great addition to the open-water certification program, showing that our area is working to increase the number of training sites.”
And county officials expect the ship’s presence will drive tourists to view the underwater life it likely will attract.
Until then, the 72-year old vessel, whose deck is stained with layer upon layer of peeling paint in shades of blues, green, yellow and orange, waits patiently to begin her new life, coming full circle to entertain special guests.
