Tug vs. bridge

[CharlieG]

a few friends of mine are on a boat list, and this is the story that was posted - take it as it were

>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...
>Captain Michael L. Smith