2007
DV Howells opened Portland Base.

1948
DV Howells and Sons Ltd established in Milford Haven by Danny Vernon Howells and his sons for the provision of crew and pilot transfer, berthing MoD ships and other general harbour support services.

1958
DV Howells and Sons Ltd attends its first marine oil spill incident, adding an oil spill response capability to the services it provides to oil companies based at Milford Haven. It’s just the start of the company’s involvement in a number of high and low profile incidents starting with Esso Portsmouth, Christos Bitos, Exxon Valdez, Braer, Pionersk, El Omar, Star Westminster, Borga, Sea Empress, Quo Iboe pipeline, Shell Dundenlin platform, Multitank Ascania, Ever Decent, Sonia, Nordfarer, Ievoli Sun, Albatross, Lagik, Willy, Kodima, Dutch Navigator, Lysfoss, Mulheim, Erika, Prestige.

1979
DV Howells and Sons Ltd acquired by Milford Haven Port Authority, but retains its status as a separate company.

1990
DV Howells and Sons accredited by Bureau Veritas Quality International (BVQI) to BS 5750 quality standard.

1992
The Marine Pollution Salvage Centre (MPSC), purpose built by DVH for a major UK Government contract, opens at Milford Haven. It also houses the company’s dedicated training centre.

1995
BVQI accreditation to ISO 9002 achieved as successor to BS 5750.

1996
DV Howells and Sons becomes the first UK spill response contractor to be accredited to the Environment Agency’s response Level 3 (the highest standard possible).

1996
In its largest operation to date, DV Howells and Sons attends the ‘Sea Empress’, at Milford Haven, helping to prevent the ship from sinking, assisting with the salvage and at sea recovery of oil, as well as providing logistics support and post-operation wash down of equipment and ships in a specially designed rehabilitation facility.

1997
DV Howells and Sons becomes the first oil spill response, training and consultancy company to achieve ISO 9001 worldwide.

1998
DV Howells and Sons rebrands as DV Howells Ltd and extends its incident response brief around the world, soon assisting with the Quo Iboe pipeline spill in Nigeria.

1999
DV Howells is recognised by the Nautical Institute on behalf of the UK Government’s Maritime and Coastguard Agency as an IMO and MCA OPRC accredited training provider. Over 175 training courses covering all five continents have since been undertaken.

2000
Our consultancy function expands with assignments from Europe to South America, the Caspian Sea, West Africa, and Asia. Since 2000, DV Howells personnel have carried out a number of consultancy tasks for the IMO, Governments and industrials.

2001
DV Howells establishes response facilities at Stansted, Chesterfield Workington and Belfast, each specialising in particular fields and enhancing response cover to clients.

2004
DV Howells acquires and merges Ceto Environmental and its subsidiaries Penvirotech, Ceto Nigeria and Acqua UK with DV Howells existing business units. Additional bases opened in Huddersfield and Falmouth.

DV Howells now offers the most comprehensive and versatile range of incident response services available; marine salvage, sea and land oil and chemical spill management, rail track services, industrial tank cleaning, contaminated ground remediation, environmental consultancy, accredited training, waste removal and equipment supply both in the UK and overseas.

2006
March 2006 DV Howells was acquired by Braemar Seascope plc from Milford Haven Port Authority. Acquistion of Hi-Bar UK Ltd at Gatwick making total of 9 bases in the UK.
The expert support of DV Howells was called to attend Ufton Nevert following rail incident involving a car and train. Personnel and equipment was deployed from three bases to boom and minimise any oil spillages from the impact site. DV Howells assisted with the clean up following the explosion from the tanks at Buncefield Tankstorage and Distribution Terminal.

2007
DV Howells were mobilised by the UK Government's Maritime and Coastguard Agency to respond to an incident where the container ship MSC Napoli was beached near Sidmouth and Devon. Shoreline clean up of debris from Chesil Beach upto Lyme Regis which included many of the ISO containers and their contents that had been lost from the deck during the beaching operations of the MSC Napoli.
HNS Advisor for Salvors - Adsteam UK Ltd following incident off the Orkneys. The Sunna run aground in the Pentland Firth carrying a cargo of Ferrosilicone.