Fairplay has always been conscious of the well being of their employees and their families. Towards the end of WW1 when famine raged the Germany, Richard Borchard bought the fish cutter Lucy , manned it with jobless seamen and divided the catch amongst his staff and their families.

Between WW1 and WW2 and during the difficult times of hyper inflation, Fairplay printed its own money, against which the Fairplay employees could purchase daily necessities to help them to survive. Local suppliers and shops willingly accepted this special currency because they knew, 'Fairplay always pays'.

Following the untimely death of their founder Richard Borchard in 1930, his wife Lucy took over the management of the company.

She was and has been for many years Europe's only female shipowner and was known throughout many continental ports as 'Mother Borchard'.

After WW2 the Fairplay fleet still consisted of 16 tugs but three had to be surrendered as reparations.

In the early 1970s, Fairplay started to operate in the international deepsea market.

Deep sea tugs and pontoons were operated by a joint venture company 'Fairplay-Petersen & Alpers Seatowage', an organisation that survived until the early 1980s. Fairplay is still engaged in the deep sea towage market using the two conventional seagoing tugs, Fairplay IX and Fairplay XIV , and when necessary, versatile azimuthing stern drive vessels of the Fairplay 21-26 series.

Following the German re-unification, Fairplay started a harbour towage service in Rostock and later took over the East German BBB Bagger Bugsier und Bergungs GmbH.

The latter was renamed 'BBBSchlepp und Hafendienst GmbH' and further extended Fairplay's towage operations in the Baltic.

Liberalisation of the European Union marketplace in the early 1990s led to considerable changes in the towage industry. Other European competitors establishing towage services in Hamburg led to cost cutting measures and the loss of several jobs among local tug crews. Fairplay took advantage of this new climate by competing in Rotterdam with six newly constructed ASD tugs.

With the further extension of the EU towards the East in 2004, Fairplay further expanded its influence in the Baltic by offering a harbour towage service in Szczecin.

A new chapter in Fairplay's history commenced in 2004 with the takeover of 50% of Belgium's largest towage company, Unie van Reeding & Sleepdienst NV (URS). This further expansion increased Fairplay's activities considerably in Western Europe and with it comes the benefit of increased flexibility.

At the reception in Rotterdam, Fairplay also said goodbye to Mr Bruno Trierweiler, who is retiring after 17 years as their managing director and 46 years in the shipping industry. Bruno was well known throughout the towage industry and will be replaced jointly by Joerg Mainzer and Walter Collet.