History

History

Our company history started with Captain Anders Williams, who created a small ship’s chandlery in Norfolk, VA in 1926. Originally based in downtown Norfolk, Anders Williams Ship Agency employees delivered necessities to vessels in the Port of Hampton Roads. Due to increasing demand for bulk marine lubricants, Marine Oil Service, “MOS”, was incorporated in 1958 and subsequently did its first bulk oil delivery using the newly purchased tanker Martin J. Hanley.

Around the time of the construction of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel in the late 1960’s, MOS purchased 3 more tankers and became the sole provider of bulk marine lubricant in Hampton Roads. Then in 1996, based on the growing demand in New York Harbor, Marine Oil’s President, Burt Miller, bought another tanker and expanded north. This vessel, the Lesney Byrd, was solely responsible for delivering all of the lubricating oil for MOS in New York over the next 3 years. As delivery demand increased, MOS added 2 more single-hull tankers to the fleet. However, due to upcoming OPA 90 regulations, Marine Oil went to work on a plan to design a state-of-the-art double hulled marine lubricants tanker. After years of planning and work with a Naval Architect, MOS built the tankers (the first of their kind), the Rolf Williams in 2005, the Sunny Williams and the Emma Miller, in 2009 and the second Lesney Byrd in 2018.

Now under the direction of Anders Williams’ great granddaughter, Catherine Avery, Marine Oil Service is one of the largest Marine Lubricating Oil delivery companies in the country.