About Us
The Levingston family has been involved with the shipbuilding industry since the 1850s in the United States. Samuel L. Levingston was born in 1832 and moved to the United States from Ireland in 1846. While in Florida, his first job was a ship carpenter. In 1852, he married Asenatha Moore. In the late 1850s, the Levingston family moved to the area near what is now the city of Orange, Texas and established a shipyard on the Sabine River. Samuel Levingston served the Confederate forces during the Civil War as a ship carpenter and a blockade runner.
After the war, he returned to Orange and began another shipyard, building paddle wheel boats for hauling cotton and farm products on the Sabine River between Orange and Logansport, Louisiana. Upon his retirement, his son, "Captain George" Levingston took over the business and developed it into the Levingston Shipbuilding Company. The shipyard continued to build vessels of all types for both the commercial market and the government. When the offshore oil and gas market developed in the 1950s, Levingston was in the forefront, developing and building many of the early designs. Levingston was the only United States builder of all types of offshore drilling rigs. With the growth of the offshore rig building business, Levingston Shipbuilding Company established Far East Levingston Shipbuilding ("FELS"). FELS has grown into what today is Keppel FELS, a world recognized shipbuilder.
As we focus on the future, we are founded on our experiences and the principles on which we believe and understand - shipbuilding. Over the decades of shipbuilding by the Levingston family, we are concentrated on the offshore oil and gas industry. Specifically, our attention is on the larger, classed Liftboat market with enhanced capabilities. We have assembled a world-class team of designers, engineers, builders and operators to bring the world offshore oil and gas industry the latest in our self-elevating, self-propelled, multi-purpose vessels.
Our alliance partners are the leaders in the liftboat industry. Simply, no other company has more experience in the design, building and operations of liftboats than Levingston and their alliance partners.
Decades of experience in the liftboat industry have honed our skills in centering on those variables that produce a highly versatile, efficient vessel. Our vessel designs use proven, time-tested jacking systems and cranes - integral components of the liftboat. We emphasize those features that we believe based on our experience contribute to the overall operational efficiency of the vessels, i.e., increased deck area and deck load capacity, enhanced maneuverability, larger personnel quarters capacity, and increased leg lengths.
We have essentially two approaches to liftboat design. It is our belief that the future of liftboat design, building and operations will center on enhanced capabilities. From the early days of liftboats in the 1950s to the present, liftboat capabilities and capacities have increased significantly. The first approach to liftboat design revolves around traditional liftboat services with capacities for essentially everything except drilling and work-over services. The second approach focuses on making the liftboat an even more versatile offshore service vessel by adding the capacity to drilling and work-over. This second approach, we refer to as our Enhanced Class (or "E" Class). Although, there are certain job specific applications that the first, traditional design is sufficient, we believe that the future is in E Class liftboats. This will provide a highly versatile, efficient vessel.
"Levingston and Their Alliance Partners"
Levingston and their alliance partners form a team of the most experienced designers, builders, and operators in the liftboat industry. Our combined backgrounds and experience is unsurpassed in the offshore liftboat industry. Although, we are founded on experiences in the United States Gulf of Mexico, our focus is international. We simply want to bring our liftboats to the world offshore markets.