Immense Tow of Coalboats
Steamer Joseph B. Williams Takes the largest fleet ever towed down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers.
Taking up a space on the surface of the water equal to eight acres - The tow consists of fifty two coalboats, four barges, three flats and one boxboat
On Tuesday, March 15, 1898, the largest single shipment of coal ever moved on the Western rivers was taken out of the harbor of Pittsburg, PA., by the towboat Joseph B. Williams, owned by C. [obscured] and Co. of that place. She was manned by [obscured] officers and crew. Capt. James G. [obscured] Assisted by Henry Liddenburn [obscured] engineers assisted by James Reynolds and Ellis Underwood, John W. Shook, mate; Pat Welsh, second mate; Ash Barnhart, steward; James Morrison, carpenter. The balance of the crew - consisted of 40 deck hands, 8 firement, 6 persons in the kitchen, and Wm. Huff, sailorman - a total of 67.
The Joseph B. Williams is the largest and most powerful towboat on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, and the tow she is now guiding and propelling down the Father of Waters is one fourth larger than any she has ever handled before. After adding at Louisville the tow consisted of 52 coalboats, 4 barges, 3 flats and 1 boxboat. The size of the coalboat is 175 feet in length, 26 feet wide and 10 feet deep, and contains 26,000 bushels of coal; the size of a barge is 135 feet in length, 26 feet wide, 8 1/2 feet deep, and contains about 18,000 bushels of coal; a flat is 90 feet in length, 16 feet wide, 8 feet deep, and contains 7,000 bushels of coal; a boxboat is [obscured probably 90] feet long, 18 feet wide, and 8 1/2 feet deep, and contains 8,000 bushels of coal. The total amount of coal in the tow is 1,453,000 bushels.
To move the amount of coal that is in the Williams' tow would require 1,937 ordinary freight cars, which would stretch out a distance of over 12 miles on the railroad track. A better idea of the immensity of this great tow can be given by the statement that the vessels containing it when in a compact form would cover a surface of water of nearly eight acres.
The dimensions of the towboat Joseph B. Williams are: Length, 256 feet; width, 52 1/2 feet; depth, 6 1/2 feet. She is supplied with six boilers 40 inches in diameter and 28 feet long. She has compound engines, two high-pressure cylinders 20 inches in diameter and two low-pressure cylinders 45 inches in diameter, with 9 feet of stroke of piston, which works a wheel 29x29 feet, having 17 buckets 36 inches wide and 29 feet long.
Cooreyl Photographer Greenville
Thanks for this info. My father in law says this is distant family of ours. He had been asking me to search for more info. and I've not found too much. I think he has a picture of the boat and/or a sketch somewhere...Thanks again!
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