[Spridgets] It's always something*

Bud Osbourne abcoz at hky.com
Mon May 12 06:09:16 MDT 2008


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 at gmail.com] 
Sent: Monday, May 12, 2008 1:24 AM
To: Bud Osbourne
Cc: 'derf'; Spridgets at 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.


More information about the Spridgets mailing list