They’re two lovely ladies, Miss Marley and Miss Ellie.

Moored at Magnolia Marine Transport’s pier on the Yazoo River Diversion Canal, the two motor vessels are the newest additions to the company’s fleet, and are expected to crisscross the country’s waterways many times during their anticipated 50-year life spans.

Tuesday morning, they sat pier side as their owners prepared for one more ceremony before releasing them to ply the rivers and canals — a blessing of them and their crews attended by company and local officials.

“The Miss Ellie and Miss Marley are the 23rd and 24th additions to our fleet of vessels,” Magnolia Marine president Stan Humphreys said before the boats were blessed.

“These vessels, along with 85 or so barges, makeup MMT’s fleet that proudly and efficiently, and most importantly safely transport many types of petroleum cargo throughout the inland waterways system.”

He added the boats are named after the great-granddaughters of Ergon Inc. founder Leslie Lampton.

“I know that Mr. and Mrs. Lampton Sr., your great-grandparents, are looking down from heaven smiling and pleased that both the work they started and the family they began continues to grow.”

A fully owned subsidiary of Ergon Inc., Magnolia Marine Transport was founded in 1967 in Greenville and relocated to Vicksburg in 1974. The company’s primary cargo is petroleum products.

Built by Nichols Boat Co. in Greenville, the Miss Marley is a 120-foot boat and Miss Ellie is 110 feet. Both boats are diesel-powered and each has a crew of seven. They are replacing two boats built in the 1960s that are being removed from service.

“We keep a modern, updated fleet, because out customers require that,” Humphreys said, adding the new boats have an interesting feature.

“They’re retractable pilothouses,” he said. “The pilothouse goes up and down, which enables us to service several markets, especially the Chicago area that has the low bridges that you have to be able to raise and lower the pilothouse to go through.”

And both are expected to begin work immediately.

“They’ve got barges standing by,” said Dino Ross, senior vice president of engineering.

“It wouldn’t be too soon if they were backing off the dock right now,” Humphreys said. “They’ve got work to do; they don’t make money while they’re sitting there.”