On 19 Jul 2005 15:49:37 -0700, "
wrote:



Dave Hall wrote:
I was just on my way down to the dock at my mother's house (on the
Ohio River above Marietta, OH) the other day when I heard a barge blow
its horn...then again...then again...then he just layed on it for a
while. Since my son was out on the river in my boat with my nephew I
obviously thought about whether they had just been crushed. So I get
in the jetski and start up river toward the sound. I see a goodly
number of boats tied together doing a "boat float" and then assumed a
bunch of drunk people with a collective $200,000 group of boats must
have felt that the barge should go around them...so I kept going in
that direction. I then see my son and nephew floating in the same
direction and ride up to them to ask what the excitement was all
about.

They told me that a boat had a skier in the water when the barge first
blew its horn. They decided to give the skier the rope and pull him
up...they failed and the barge blew again. They apparently felt they
had lots of time and tried again...and again they failed and the barge
blew its horn. So obviously, they tried (and failed) again. The barge
was apparently in full reverse by then with (obviously) no effect and
were laying on the horn and trying to move the big ******* to the side
(total of 15 fully loaded coal barges and a towboat). Bargemen were
spilling out of the tow and getting safety equipment ready and in a
general panick. The boaters finally relented and picked up the skier
and went on their merry way. The pilot eventually got the barge
realigned toward the locks a few hundred yards further upstream. My
kids thought that it was funny that the boaters weren't drunk
teenagers, but older looking folks and the skier appered to be their
grandson or aged thereabouts.

The Other Dave Hall

How far inland are you?

The Ohio River about 100 miles south of Pittsburgh, PA (about the
western edge of the Allegheny Mountains) the western boarder of West
Virginia or the eastern boarder of Ohio.

That would be a "whistle", not a "horn" here in sal****er land,

It is similar to a grown-up train whistle or a really big brother to a
tractor-trailer horn.

while towboats will have a whistle, vessels we call "barges" are
unpowered and will not. I think I've seen some photos of riverboats
that look something like landing craft- big flat decks with ore, etc.
piled up
infront of a pilothouse on a tower. These may very well and properly be
called "barges" back east somewhere......just curious.

Can't say that I know the technical name, but growing up on the Ohio
River we called the whole unit a "barge" but we also called each
unpowered flatbottomed cargo boat a "barge" and the power unit a tow
or towboat. One of the neighbors is a pilot on a Mississippi River
"barge" and he uses the same teminology so I assume it is standard
terminology on the river. In any case, 15 fully loaded coal "barges"
pushed by one "tow" is a pretty big and heavy "vehicle" that does not
stop or turn easily.

The Other Dave Hall