The First Irene Chotin
Since the popular Inland Marine Expo will take place May 28–30 in Nashville, Tenn., it is only fitting that the “old boat” this week is a Nashville product. The Nashville Bridge Company was known as a premier builder of river towboats for 50 years. The company had roots back to at least 1902, when Arthur J. Dyer bought out his partner’s interests in the H.T. Sinnot Company and formed the Nashville Bridge and Construction Company. Dyer, an 1891 graduate of the Vanderbilt School of Engineering, had worked for bridge building companies before partnering with Sinnot. After 1904, Dyer’s company was called Nashville Bridge Company, or Nabrico, and in 1915 it began constructing marine equipment.
Towing company leaders have long had preferred boat builders, and Capt. Joseph Chotin was no different. In 1923, he had the steam sternwheel J.N. Pharr built at Nabrico. The Pharr was the first of many towboats Nabrico built for Chotin. In 1937, Nabrico built the steel hull for the steam sternwheel Jos. Chotin, which replaced the J.N. Pharr after the Pharr capsized in a windstorm. In 1941, Chotin took delivery of a new, modern twin-screw diesel towboat from Nabrico.
The new boat was christened Irene Chotin and had a hull that was 128.5 by 28 feet. Power was supplied by two Cooper-Bessemer JS 8-cylinder engines with 13-inch bore and 16-inch stroke. These engines were capable of producing up to 1,600 hp., and that is how the boat was rated in the initial 1945 edition of the Inland River Record (IRR). However, Nabrico ads in issues of The Waterways Journal in 1941 show it as having 1,250 hp. at 350 rpm.
The new Irene Chotin was the latest refinement in Nabrico’s evolution of towboat design. There was a full lower cabin and a shorter upper cabin surmounted by a slightly elevated pilothouse that had a rakish visor around it. Two tall, straight smokestacks rose behind the upper cabin. This style of towboat was Nabrico’s standard design for the next several years.
The owner of the Irene Chotin was originally listed as Chotin & Pharr, New Orleans. It entered service with the other boat owned by the company at the time, the previously mentioned steamer Jos. Chotin. In the years that followed, Chotin & Pharr continued to expand. In 1946, the Jos. Chotin was converted to twin screw diesel, and in 1948 and 1949, the company added a pair of Nabrico-built towboats, the Scott Chotin and Harry Dyer. Also in 1949, the Irene Chotin created a stir when, as reported in the Inland River Record, “This was the first river type towboat to reach Corpus Christi, Texas, on a regular business trip, arriving there December 1, 1949, a real milestone in river history.”
By 1951, the company name was Chotin Inc., and in that year, the Irene Chotin was repowered with a pair of GM 12-278A engines, making it 2,000 hp. In 1959, a new 3,200 hp. Irene Chotin was built, and the original was sold to Sioux City & New Orleans Barge Line (SC&NO) of Houston and renamed the Nebraska City. At some point, a third cabin was placed under the pilothouse to give the boat more eye level, but little else changed other than the paint scheme.
The Nebraska City was running on the Illinois River on August 27, 1973, when it caught fire and burned just below Hennepin, Ill. The boat then disappeared from the 1974 and 1975 editions of the IRR. It reappeared in the 1976 edition with the entry stating that the boat had been rebuilt by Lemont Shipbuilding & Repair. The rebuild included the removal of the upper two cabins and pilothouse and the installation of a retractable pilothouse. The boat was also repowered at this time, receiving a pair of GM 12-567 engines coupled to Falk 2.5:1 gears. The boat was then rated at 2,600 hp. The owner was still SC&NO, and the name remained the same.
In 1987, the boat was sold to Southern Marine Equipment Company, Greenville, Miss. It was leased and later sold to Jantran Inc., Rosedale, Miss. In August 2004, it was sold again to Yellowhammer Transportation LLC, Theodore, Ala. The 2009 edition of the IRR carried the Nebraska City in the “Off The Record” section, stating that it was a “Towboat owned by Delta Marine Service Inc., dismantled.”
Featured image caption: The rebuilt Nebraska City at Memphis, Tenn., on August 18, 1980. (Photo by Jeff L. Yates)
