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   A Day On The River In Alabama 1979

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Topic: A Day On The River In Alabama 1979 (Read 193 times)

luci
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A Day On The River In Alabama 1979
« on: Feb 14^th, 2005, 10:58am »

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http://koti.mbnet.fi/~soldier/towboat.htm
This is old news, but very interesting! In fact, AMAZING Cool

It was at the old Rooster Bridge at Demopolis, Ala. It happened in April, 1979. The pilot rode the boat through. When he saw he could not kill the tow out before hitting the bridge, he sent the crew onto the tow. He tried to back the face wires out but one fouled and the tow dragged the boat into the bridge were the wire finally broke. Some local just happened to have a camera at the right time.

April 28, 1979- the CAHABA, Capt. Jimmy Wilkerson, was dropping 2 of his 4 barges thru the east span of Rooster Bridge- mm 200.(something), with intent of running around thru the lift span and catching them below. Pilot Earl Barnhart was on the tow helping the 2 deckhands take off safety wires, winch wires, etc. Wilkerson under-estimated current, and got too close to the bridge, and for some reason they had taken loose all rigging except the stbd. tow-knee wire. This wire pulled the stbd. tow knee under the bridge, and when it broke, the towknee popped up and hung in the bridge steel. Now he's stuck, and the current laid the CAHABA onto the bridge, stbd. side to. When the lower port deck went awash, the vessel rolled, went through the span, and came partially back up once it cleared. Capt. Wilkerson remained at the sticks; however, at one point he was straddled the stbd. pilot house door frame, and the port front pilot house window blew out, filling the place with water.

The boat with the blue trim you see is the CATHY PARKER; she was waiting above for her turn. The CATHY radioed to the TALLAPOOSA, who was down the reach below Blacks Bluff, that something had happened to the CAHABA. Capt. Gary Grammer tied off the TALLAPOOSAs tow, and light-boated to the CAHABA, where he pushed her out into a flooded corn field. The stbd. 16-149 of the CAHABA was still running. The TALLAPOOSA then rescued the 3 crew members, and secured the 2 loose CAHABA barges.

The photographer was from the Linden, AL DEMOCRAT, en route to Meridian, MS, and happened to get caught as the CAHABA blew for a draw at the Rooster bridge. What kept these pictures out of circulation for so long (we believe) was that the President of Warrior & Gulf, owners of the CAHABA, bought the negatives immediately after they were published in the LINDEN DEMOCRAT. I have a copy of the original published version, although it's a little worse for wear after 23 years.

What righted the vessel? She had just topped off with fuel at Demopolis, 14 miles upstream. The CAHABA has one central fuel tank fwd. the engines; had that tank been 1/2 full, she might have never come back up.

Earl Barnhart passed away sveral years ago. I have no idea where Jimmy Wilkerson is.

If you have a copy of the original newspaper I would love to obtain a copy of it for the company that owns her now. She is presently named the M/V Captain Ed Harris and still runs today.

Most of the old bridges on the Tombigbee happen to be built in bends ( Rooster, in the old days, Naheola mm. 173, and Jackson RR, mm 89.0) On Rooster and Naheola, during extreme high water, it was easier ( and safer) to get next to the east bank, out of the heavy current, and ease your tow through the span closest to the bank, where the current wasn't so fierce, than trying to drive or flank the tow through the lift span of a draw bridge, with 150' or less of horizontal clearance. So the idea was to "drop" (cut loose) the barges through the slack water span, run light-boat through the draw span, and catch up to the barges just below the bridge. If you had a good deck crew, and winches whose brakes wouldn't lock up on you at the worst possible time, this procedure took about 15 minutes. At Jackson RR bridge you don't have a choice, as there is no "alternate" span to get the tow through; you either run or flank it in high water.

Capt. Wilkerson was attempting this procedure when, in the words of a great Tombigbee river pilot "the music was playing faster than he could dance to..."

The incident occured at the old rooster bridge (US HIGHWAY 80), mile 202 on the Tombigbee river. The bridge was blown out and replaced by a new bridge just up river in the early 80's. There is a wood chip loader on the sight of the old brige now. The river was at a record highwater stage. If I remember correctly the gage was around 73 feet at Demopolis. A normal low water gage is around 13 feet.( They measure the gages on the Warrior and Tombigbee differently now so you may have seen higher numbers.) It has not been that high before or since. Point of interest: The now imfamous M/V Mauvilla which belonged to the same company picked up the Cahabas's tow and carried it on to Mobile.

« Last Edit: Feb 14^th, 2005, 10:59am by luci »

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