Amazing Tug boat photos

ScottD · 03-02-2002, 07:55 AM

Take a look at these pictures:
:shocked:
http://www.netcopspsi.com/temp/towboat.htm

Drachir · 03-02-2002, 08:16 AM

WOW!!!! That is amazing!!!!! :shocked: :shocked: :shocked:

Jennie@ifish · 03-02-2002, 01:21 PM

Where was this?
Jen

Jim · 03-02-2002, 02:11 PM

I did that with a drift boat against a log jam when I was 16 on the Satsop! :shocked:

What is amazing is that this guy just went on as if nothing happened....great skipper! Wonder what he told his wife when she asked how his day was??

Jim

Trick · 03-02-2002, 04:50 PM

Holy cow!!! :shocked: :shocked: :shocked:

One tough machine!

Snagly · 03-02-2002, 05:18 PM

Somewhere, Mark Twain just hoisted his whiskey glass in tribute to that captain.

Great sequence of shots and commentary.

Snapshot · 03-02-2002, 05:21 PM

Leaping bullfrogs folks, I cannot believe they just kept going and going and going. [img]graemlins/1zhelp.gif[/img] This must have accured down south where the rivers run brown. I am willing to bet this is the only time a man could mess up his underware and wash them in the same time, and without taking them off. :blush:
Great photography.

*Fish only bite weet hooks*

Pirate · 03-02-2002, 10:47 PM

Oh Sh..!!!!!!! :shocked: :shocked: :shocked: :shocked: :shocked:

myxxolydyan · 03-03-2002, 12:01 AM

I would have loved to be the Deck Hand on that trip. Then I could have called the captain an A$#HOLE for once. he he.

:shocked:

Capin' Dan · 03-03-2002, 12:16 AM

And in the words of Captain Bravado

"Bring me my brown pants"

Anyone who wants the rest of this joke send me a private mail.

Mr. Fisherman · 03-03-2002, 02:14 PM

Capin' Dan!,

I'm pretty darn sure he is wearing them....

Bet the next bar isn't a sand bar

Puts a shiver in me timbers....

Hmmm... Maybe a tug boat instead of an Arima..... :whazzup:

TeamYeeha · 03-04-2002, 08:37 PM

Does that tug say North River on the side :grin: Good reason to leave your wheel house door shut!

Phish_on · 03-05-2002, 08:44 AM

Don't believe everything you read on the Internet, but I thought I would pass this along for your further entertainment. Supposed to be from a crew member of another tug & eye-witness :
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~

There are some things about me that you are just unaware of, and this instance is a fitting example. Please send this to all, my explanation.
And as Paul Harvey used to say..." that's the rest of the story..."

It was either late 1978 or early 1979, I have forgotten exactly, but anyway, I am close on either... The river is the Tombigbee River and
this happened to be the record high water ever for that area. The towboat you see coming down on the bridge is the Motor Vessel Cahaba owned by Warrior
Gulf Navigation out of Mobile, Alabama. Warrior Gulf is a subsidiary of Pittsburg Steel. I know you are familiar with Birmingham's coal mines and steel mills, and this company would haul iron pellets up to Birmingport and off-load to make steel plate. On the return the barges were filled with coal for export at the McDuffie Coal Terminal at the mouth of the Mobile River and at the head of Mobile Bay.

The Bridge was the Old Rooster Bridge (since demolished and removed - I saw the explosion to tear it down also) located below Demopolis,
Alabama.
The land-side highway dead ends at the bluff, and you can still drive to this site and imagine how high the river had to be to get to the bottom
of the bridge...

The pass or Channel Span of the bridge was located on the far West side of the river, or on the opposite bank from the photographer's standpoint.
In normal river flow, we would drop down near the rock bluff and steer through the opening to pass southward with our tows of coal barges. Normal
loads were six barges, each measuring 195' X 35' and loaded to a 10' draft. This allowed each barge to carry approximately 2,000 tons of coal
(times six = 12,000 tons X 2000 pounds = 24 Million pounds of cargo.)
The boat is 1800 Horsepower twin engine diesel built in Pine Bluff, Arkansas.
It is named after one of the eight "friendly" Indian tribes. It is the Motor Vessel Cahaba. At the "sticks" or helm is Captain Jimmie Wilkerson,
a long time river pilot and was my personal friend - since deceased.

The river current was so very treacherous that we were forced to drop down to the bridge in the slack(er) water on the left descending bank and
when we got down to the bridge, we uncoupled the boat from the barges and let the barges drift down under the bridge. The bottom of the bridge would
"shave" the coal stacked in the barges off to a level surface. The next step was to back the vessel upriver and then go over to the far West
side and traverse the bridge's channel span with the boat, and run down and catch the barges. It was just too dangerous to try to bring the barges
through the bridge span in the current.

Anyway, Jimmie dropped down properly and with the entire rest of the crew standing on the barges for safety, he began to reverse his engines to
back away. His stern would have to be kept directly pointed into the current or the boat would travel sideways like a kite without it's tail. Captain
Jim was a fine pilot, but he made a small mistake and his stern was caught in the current, twisted sideways and the river smashed him into the bridge
sideways. Notice that the boat re-surfaced right side up on the down stream side. What luck you say? Nope, WGN ballasted all their vessels with
three to four feet of cement in the bottom. The boat was like a little yellow rubber duckie, and came back up like a duckie oughta do. The
boat suffered major cosmetic damages, but little flooding because of water tight doors, except in the pilothouse. Notice the picture where the
boat is not quite righted and you can see water pouring out of the wheelhouse door. The chair washes out, and Jimmie told me he was holding on to the controls with all his might to keep from going out the drain and into the river.

He was very shook up and you can see him approach the tow of barges downriver. Well he didn't get it together quite soon enough and he smashed into the barges, causing further damage.

I next saw Jimmie about a month after this and we had a cup of coffee together and talked about the incident. He was smoking a Camel Non-filter but didn't even need an ashtray beacuse his hands were still shaking too much for the ash to build up to any degree.

How do I know all this? I was on the boat that went through the bridge immediately before the Cahaba. The Motor Vessel James E. Philpott made the
bridge and was headed south at close to 15 MPH. For all you who don't understand, that is very fast on a commercial towboat with that much tonnage.

Glad to pass this on to everybody...

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