Yeah, I remember that one. That towboat now belongs to a client of
mine, and that sequence of photos is framed, and hanging on the office
wall of a good friend of mine, who is now their VP of operations.
But, actually, I wasn't referring to the pilots running small towboats,
handling six barges, or fewer. In my mind's eye, I was seeing the guys
piloting big-horsepower towboats (5,000 hp and up......the one pictured
was only about 1400 hp at the time of that roll-over), with heavy tows
(25 to 40 barges, each carrying around 1700 tons of cargo) on the Lower
Mississippi. Those guys are the true artists/magicians/ice
water-in-the-veins types. The next "tier" of pilots would be the ones
moving 15 barge tows (tow size limited by the 1200' x 110' lock
dimensions on the Ohio, or 600' x 110' on the Upper) on the Upper
Mississippi and Ohio Rivers. While moving smaller tows, they are also
running towboats with less horsepower, and the locks & dams, and bridges
all present a different set of problems than those encountered by the
lower river guys. Fascinating stuff, for sure.
Bud Osbourne
-----Original Message-----
From: William M. Gilroy [mailto:wmgilroy@gmail.com]
Sent: Monday, May 12, 2008 1:24 AM
To: Bud Osbourne
Cc: 'derf'; Spridgets@autox.team.net; 'Ed's Shop'
Subject: Re: [Spridgets] It's always something*
Sort of like this http://koti.mbnet.fi/~soldier/towboat.htm
<http://koti.mbnet.fi/%7Esoldier/towboat.htm> The definition of a bad
day.
Bud Osbourne wrote:
> But, for that $100K-$200K, those guys have one of the most stressful
> jobs there is. You see, when a towboat pilot gets it all wrong, he
> often has AT LEAST several minutes to watch the disaster unfold in
front
> of his eyes, all while sitting helplessly as 50K, 60K tons (or more)
of
> cargo, barges and towboat, pushed by the unstoppable force of Ole Man
> River, majestically careen onward. The consequences of a river pilot
> error have all too often included the loss of the towboat, with all
> hands. Heart attacks, + other stress - related health issues, along
> with marital problems are all too common.
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