Company History

The Evolution of Bull Dredging

Bull Dredging was incorporated in April 1977 by its current President/CEO William A. Bull. However, Mr. Bull's dredging experience goes back much further than 1977.

In 1964, after finishing school, Mr. Bull began his career with Standard Dredging as a young field engineer. He was immediately assigned to the survey team where he learned the fundamentals of dredging and was able to gain the proverbial “hands on experience” necessary to reliably function within the dredging industry. His primary functions were dredge positioning utilizing a sextant and three arm protractor, setting ranges, and hydrographic surveys.

Within a year, Mr. Bull was ready for the next step, contract investigation. There he was tutored and learned how to wash, auger and drive bore for material analysis under the careful and capable direction of Walter D. Walker and Theo P. (Pop) Pearson. After Mr. Pesrson’s retirement and with an outstretched neck "readily available to the corporate chopping block", Mr. Bull left Standard Dredging.

In 1968, Mr. Bull was hired by Dr. E.E. Leitner, a practicing physician and owner of Shoreline Dredging. Within a year of employment, Mr. Bull was promoted to vice president of operations and allowed to purchase 8% of the company. In late 1977, Dr. Leitner announced his desire to sell Shoreline and, with Mr. Bull having the right of first refusal, negotiations began. The only problem that Mr. Bull had was the asking price of $350,000.00.

Mr. Bull considered his options, and eventually began the process of all dredgers in owning their own company. Mr. Bull thought about the aspect of ownership, but knew that the company needed a catchy name used daily, in some context or another, “Bull”. Thus in December, 1977 Bull Dredging began with one field employee and no dredges.

In January 1978, with a leased dredge from Dr. Leitner and a bond guaranteed by Jimmy and George Goodloe (Parkhill and Goodloe), Bull Dredging was off and running. Shortly thereafter, Bull Dredging and Hydrarch, owned by George E. Quaile entered into a formal joint venture agreement. Hydrarch owned Mud Cat dredges. In 1980, Mr. Bull acquired one half interest in Hydrarch and assumed the presidency. Two years after venturing with Hydrarch, Mr. Bull sold his stock back to Hydrarch in exchange for one Mud Cat dredge, one flat bed, pipeline, a company vehicle and necessary support equipment along with some operating capital.

Since that time, Mr. Bull has not looked back and after 27 years as the owner of Bull Dredging Inc, he’s still pushing forward in the dredging industry.