Old Boat Column: Some Boats Leave Lasting Memories

The boats featured in this column today are somewhat special to this writer. The Mark M was the first towboat I ever set foot on, and I spent much time on and around both of these boats in my youth. To them go the credit of propelling me toward a career on the river.

Merdie Boggs & Sons Towing and Harbor Service at Catlettsburg, Ky., began operations in February 1955 with Capt. Clarence Boggs purchasing the 120 hp. diesel sternwheel towboat Resolute (see The Waterways Journal, April 15, 2024) from Capt. Harry White with savings from his military duty. He and his father, Capt. Merdie Boggs, worked at the Kenova Terminal (KT) coal dock at Ohio River Mile 316.7 in Kenova, W.Va., just above the mouth of the Big Sandy River, where they operated the diesel sternwheel Wild Goose.

The Boggses had noticed an increase in the number of line-haul towboats that were having to tie off and spend hours dropping, picking up and doing tow work at the docks in the area. In the beginning, they kept the Resolute tied behind the cells at KT, but as their business increased, they leased property from the city of Catlettsburg, Ky., and made a landing there. In a short time, they were so busy that both men left their jobs at KT and worked for the new company full time. In 1956, they added the 375 hp. sternwheel F.L. Bowers (see WJ, November 21, 2022) to their fleet and included short-haul towing to the services provided.

To keep up with demand, they first bareboat chartered a twin-screw diesel harbor boat and then decided to have a new vessel of their own built. Capt. Clarence Boggs once told me that he had seen the Boaz, built in 1957 by Yates Marine Construction for Monongahela & Ohio Dredging Company of Pittsburgh, and had really liked the looks of the 60- by 20-foot, 450 hp. towboat. Jack Yates had built small boats since the early 1950s, utilizing a spot on Wheeling Island at Wheeling, W.Va., with the Boaz being his largest build at that time.

Boggs entered into an agreement with Yates and, in 1959, took delivery of the Mark M, named for Capt. Clarence Boggs’ oldest son. Its hull was 55 feet by 20 feet and looked much like the Boaz, except for the addition of a small cabin behind the pilothouse. It had 580 hp. from a pair of Waukesha diesel engines. It went into service in the Catlettsburg harbor and was a great success from the aspect of handling compared to the sternwheelers, though the Waukesha engines gave problems from the beginning.

In 1961, Boggs again turned to Yates to have a vessel similar to the Mark M built. That new vessel was named Franklin B for Capt. Merdie’s youngest son. The Franklin B was slightly longer, with the hull measuring 59 feet by 20 feet, and it had 720 hp. from a pair of Cat D353 engines and Cat 3.03:1 reduction gears. The superstructure was identical to the previous boat, with the added length all in the stern of the vessel. The sternwheelers were sold, with the Resolute going to Mansbach Metals Company at Ashland, Ky., and the Bowers traded to Capt. Harry White in exchange for a landing boat that was the former steam sternwheel Atlas (see WJ, April 28, 2025).

The Cat engines on the Franklin B performed so well that, in 1964, the Mark M was repowered with the same type engines and gears, then rated 800 hp. The boats were very familiar sights in the Catlettsburg area, at times running up to Point Pleasant, W.Va., or down as far as the Maysville, Ky., area. Capt. Merdie Boggs was most usually found on the Franklin B. The Mark M had the radio call sign WL 8413, while the Franklin B had WR 4692.

The company continued to grow with the purchase of the Dravo-built 1,066 hp. Crucible (see WJ, October 13, 2025) in 1966, which was renamed Bryan B for Clarence’s youngest son and repowered with Cat D398 engines of 1,530 hp. In 1970, two Yates-built vessels were purchased from Mountain State Construction Company, the 760 hp. Mountain State and the 400 hp. Toby C, which was renamed Jill B for the youngest daughter of Clarence.

In 1972, Clarence formed a separate company that included the Bryan B and Mountain State, while the former company continued to be operated by other members of the Boggs family. The assets of Merdie Boggs & Sons were sold to Ingram in 2015, with several of the boats being immediately resold to Amherst Madison, including the Mark M and Franklin B. The Mark M was scrapped in 2019 at Bellaire, Ohio, very near where it was originally built. The Franklin B was scrapped near Gallipolis, Ohio, in 2022.

Featured image caption: A scan of the photo for many years in Merdie Boggs & Sons ads in The Waterways Journal. (From the author’s collection)