Towboat Photos, page 5 The former towboat MAMIE BARRETT with folks in Gay 90's costumes Attached is a scan of an unusual undated photo 4.40 x 6.40 inches of the towboat MAMIE S. BARRETT after she was retired and serving as a restaurant/showboat with her own name on the portside bow and the name PIASA on the pilot house, which according to Keith Norrington the boat was called while she was in the boat harbor at West Alton, Missouri (across the river from Alton, Illinois). Keith also informed ME me that "the upper works of the BARRETT burned in 2017 at Deer Park, Louisiana. It was reported that this occurred during high water when she floated into some power lines, starting a blaze. Only the main deck now remains." In this photograph about 25 of the folks on the main deck are dressed in Gay 90's costumes which suggests that they were either performers in a showboat melodrama, costumed guests at a party or as Keith conjectured possibly during the filming of a motion picture. A gent on the wooden dock appears to be taking tickets next to the mini-gangplank where the boat was boarded. Photos taken of the BARRETT by Keith Norrington and others while she was abandoned out of the water at Rosedale in Iberville Parish, Louisiana and before she was reduced to her main deck in the 2017 fire can be viewed by entering the boat's name in a GOOGLE search. MAMIE S. BARRETT Sternwheel Towboat Way's Steam Towboat Directory Number T1706 1921 at Jeffersonville, Indiana by Howard Ship Yard. Home port or owner's residence circa 1921, Louisville, Kentucky. Owned by Oscar F. Barrett OFFICERS & CREW 1923 : Captain Clarence Carter (master) Arthur T. Jones (pilot) Cliff Pickens (engineer) W.A. Garrigus (engineer) Hiram Jordan (mate) Dickey Moore (steward) The BARRETT was sold to U.S. Engineering Department and her certificate surrendered on October 22, 1923. The BARRETT appears in the Rock Island District inventory in 1926. Renamed PENNIMAN in 1935. In the early 1980s, her original name MAMIE S. BARRETT was restored and she became a restaurant on Kentucky Lake. In 1987 she was sold and moved to Vicksburg where she operated as a restaurant/Showboat through 1991. Towboat Twilight 1882-1921 TWILIGHT Sternwheel Towboat Ways' Steamboat Directory Number T2477; Built in 1864 at Middletown, Pennsylvania as the TRAVELER Owners: 1882: Captain Lew Clark Unknown dates: C. Jutte & Company Combine (MCC) Rodgers Sand Company Officers & Crew: 1882: Captain Lew Clark 1905: James A. Hornbake (engineer) 1909: James A. Hornbake (engineer) 1917: Captain Brady Berry (master), William Weldon (pilot) Allegheny River; Monongahela River Captain Lew Clark rebuilt the Twilight from the old TRAVELER. He painted her cherry red and did job towing with her. Belonged to several owners, referred to as the "cat with nine lives" because of all the mishaps she endured over the years. May 13, 1891 she burned at the foot of Ferry Street, Pittsburgh along with two other boats; she was rebuilt. In April, 1898 she hit her hog-chain braces on the 43rd Street bridge, punched them down through the hull and sank. December 3, 1905 she sank clear to the roof in a flood at Lock 2, Monongahela River, after going over the dam. In February, 1909 James A. Hornbake, engineer, was drowned off her at Duquesne, Pennsylvania. On October 7, 1917 she was going along full head near Braddock, Pennsylvania and took a nose dive and sank. In 1918 she was going under the 16th Street bridge on the Allegheny, an old wooden structure, during high water and the sparks from her stacks set the bridge on fire and burned it to a complete loss. On November 15, 1920 she caught fire and was nearly destroyed at Pittsburgh. On January 17, 1921 she sank near 31st Street on the Allegheny River at Pittsburgh. However, she was renamed J.H. McCRADY in May 1927 and continued service at Middletown, Pennsylvania as the TRAVELER. The towboat CHEROKEE worked for the Louisville district of the U.S. Engineers and is evidently pushing quarter boats to a sight along the Ohio River to house and feed crews working on an engineering related project. I like the windmill on the wharf boat in the left foreground. Perhaps the windmill provided power to pump water out of the river for a kitchen or rest rooms. Sternwheel towboat on the Ohio River by John Clymer POST 15 April 1961 Detail from the cover of the April 15, 1961 Saturday Evening Post Artist John Clymer's painting of a sternwheel towboat on the Ohio River with the state of Ohio on the far shore as seen from the state of West Virginia. Towboat on the Mississippi between Iowa and Wisconsin Detail from a real photo postcard of an unknown towboat pushing barges on the Upper Mississippi River taken from the bridge between Marquette, Iowa and Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin. The bridge that spans the river at this crossing presently opened in 1975 and since this image probably dates from the 1940s at the latest this photo must have taken from been an earlier span. NICE PHOTO TAKEN UNDER IDEAL LIGHTING CIRCUMSTANCES AND CLEAR VISIBILITY OF BOTH SIDES OF THE RIVER. BEAUTIFUL WATER AND NEAT CASCADE OF THE WHEEL AS WELL. TAKEN NEAR THE OHIO RIVERTOWN OF GALLIPOLIS (PRONOUNCED "GALLOP POLICE" BY THE RESIDENTS) ON THE OHIO RIVER. I SWEETENED THE CATHARINE DAVIS A BIT BY BRIGHTENING THE STERN ABOVE THE WHEEL AND THE BOILER DECK BELOW THE HANGING LAUNDRY PLUS THEN I USED A PROTOCOL TO REMOVE WHITE DUST FROM THE SMOKE. THE BULGED OUT CURVE AT THE STERN ABOVE THE WHEEL IS SOMETHING I DON'T RECALL SEEING IN PHOTOS OF ANY STEAMBOAT BEFORE, AN INTERESTING DETAIL WHICH MUST'VE MADE IT MORE DIFFICULT TO CONSTRUCT BUT IT'S NICE TO LOOK AT. ON TOP OF THE PILOT HOUSE OR BETWEEN THE STACK IS A CUT OUT "BULL'S EYE" WITH WHAT IS PROBABLY THE LETTERS "I" AND "C" FOR "ISLAND CREEK COAL COMPANY" WHICH OWNED TWO CONSECUTIVE BOATS NAMED CATHARINE DAVIS WHOSE DATES WERE 1896 - 1928 AND 1928 - 1949. THIS PHOTO LOOKS LIKE IT PROBABLY DATES FROM THE '40'S SO I'D GUESS THIS IS THE SECOND C.D. The towboat C.C. SLIDER (built in the style as the W.P. SNYDER JR.) from the March 2nd, 1929 edition of the Waterways Journal. Have upgraded the photo of the boat to a better quality copy of the same image from La Crosse. Text resized and reformatted and outlines enhanced. There is another ad on the same page regarding the Gardner Steering Gear that was installed on the C.C. SLIDER. Eventually that ad will also be restored and enhanced to join this one on one of the towboat pages. C.C. SLIDER Sternwheel Towboat Way's Steam Towboat Directory Number T0312; Built at Midland, Pennsylvania by Midland Barge Company 1928 for the Ohio River; engines built by Marietta Manufacturing Company Owned by E. T. Slider, Inc., Louisville, Kentucky; named for Chester C. Slider, son of E. T. Slider. Although regularly employed in the Louisville area, this boat made frequent trips to Huntington for coal. Captain Ed Hauser of Jeffersonville was master for some time; he died December 1941. Captain Roy McBride was on her in 1938, 1939, maybe longer. H. M. Prather long was chief engineer. Boat was laid up for dismantling in 1952. Diesel Towboat Del Commune 1937 This excellent photo of the diesel towboat DEL COMMUNE with the boat's building crew putting finishing touches on her in October of 1937 at the Dubuque Boat &Boiler Works is available as a poster in a variety of sizes from HistoryGaloreAndMore on ETSY https://www.etsy.com/listing/539042927/poster-many-sizes-available-almost?ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=towboat&ref=sr_gallery-1-9&organic_search_click=1 I plumbed and cropped the photo to square up the distant commercial buildings and boat's stacks and also separately plumbed up the text in the lower right so everything is leveled horizontally. Diesel Towboat DEL COMMUNE Nearing Completion Viewed From Aft To Forward, National Archives and Records Administration Number 285942 The photo was taken on the 14th of October, 1937 at Dubuque Boat &Boiler Works, built for the U.S.Engineer Department of St. Louis, Missouri Record group: Record Group 77: Records of the Office of the Chief of Engineers, 1789 - 1999 Series: St. Louis District: Photographs, compiled 1890 - 1970 Towboat James W. Good Dubuque Boiler Works 1930 BEAUTIFUL CLOUDS, WATER AND BOATS IN A 1938 PHOTO OF THE TOWBOAT JAMES W. GOOD AT DUBUQUE, IOWA. Dubuque Boat & Boiler Works, Dubuque IA http://shipbuildinghistory.com/shipyards/small/dubuque.htm This yard was started in 1852, as Rouse & Dean, a name that was later changed to Iowa Iron Works. Its assets were sold to John F. Killeen in 1904 and reconstructed as Dubuque Boat & Boiler Works. Initially it was located at Eagle Point, then, from 1882 on, in the Ice Harbor where the National Mississippi River Museum is now. It closed in 1972. D.B. & B. Works number 229905 JAMES W. GOOD Built for Ross Coyne Towboat 530 tons 90 feet long Built in 1930 E.T. Slider Company and its towboat NORTHERN Very neat 3 3/4 inch celluloid button graphic from for promotional pocket mirror Manufactured by Whitehead & Hoag Co. Newark, New Jersey Relevant article from ROCK PRODUCTS & BUILDING MATERIAL Incorporating Dealers Building Material Record Volume XIV CHICAGO May 7, 1914 Number 1 President E. T. Slider, of the E. T. Slider Co., Dealer in Coal, Sand & Gravel in New Albany, Indiana is on a trip to Rising Sun, Indiana, where five barges of coal are hung up on a dike. The company's towboat, the NORTHERN, was coming down the river with ten barges, 320,000 bushels of coal in tow when a tiller rope broke while the boat was under a full head of steam. The consequence was that five of the ten barges were thrown up on the dike before the engines could be reversed, as the boat swung around. A digger was sent up from Louisville to assist in the work. The barges were badly damaged, and some of them will probably have to be emptied before repairs can be made. This cut down the digging operations at Louisville considerably with the digger away. The accident occurred at Rising Sun, Indiana. Half dozen snap shots of happy towboat deckhands Attached six wonderful snap shots of an unknown crew aboard an unidentified towboat probably taken during the 1940's. The couple upper right may have been engaged or married. The steep incline rising from the riverside to a commercial district behind them reminds me of Louisiana, Missouri but many rivertowns have a similar topography. Five crewmen look like they may be enjoying a hearty breakfast around the dining table judging by what looks like a plate with a stack of toast on it on the corner of the table nearest the camera. The fellow in the engine room is in high spirits and the young man wearing first class Athletic Shoe/Roller Skates makes good use of the wide corridor for recreation. Down the corridor is a pass-through from the kitchen which has a counter accessible from the corridor where a pot of coffee and other refreshments await thirsty crewmen. Several of the crew may have posed in more than one photograph, either that or they were related - brothers or cousins. With the exception of images credited to public institutions, everything on this page is from a private collection. Please contact Steamboats.com for permission for commercial use.* All captions provided by Dave Thomson, Steamboats.com primary contributor and historian.