Old Boat Column

In December 1923, the Swiss Oil Company, primarily involved in oil exploration and gathering, hired a young Paul G. Blazer and tasked him with selecting a refinery to purchase. Blazer… Read More

Diesel-powered propeller towboats had been making great strides since the early 1920s with yards such as the Howards, Wards and Nashville Bridge, and it was only natural that Dravo would… Read More

Last week we looked at the Str. General Ashburn. As mentioned, it was one of four steam, sternwheel towboats built by Dubuque Boat & Boiler Company for the Upper Mississippi… Read More

In the column of September 5, we looked at the Str. Mark Twain and the Missouri River Navigation celebration trip. While the Mark Twain was the lead towboat and carried… Read More

In 1898, a group of investors purchased the Anchor Line packet City of New Orleans with the idea of rebuilding it into a superior Upper Ohio River packet. The City… Read More

As addressed in this column last week, big things were happening on the Missouri River in June of 1932. The much touted “6-foot channel” was nearly ready for traffic, and… Read More

Fire-breathing behemoths once roamed the Missouri River. No, this isn’t in reference to prehistoric or mythical creatures, but rather the four large dredges built by the U.S. Engineer Department to… Read More

In 1919, Dravo Corporation built two steam sternwheel towboats in their yard in the back channel of Neville Island (Pa.). The boats were essentially sister vessels with one being the… Read More

The Inland Waterways Corporation (IWC), the government-owned barge line, as mentioned last week, had built a fleet of vessels in 1920 intended for Warrior-Tombigbee River service. In 1929, they built… Read More

The Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway Conference scheduled for August 10–12 brings to mind the early involvement that the Inland Waterways Corporation (IWC) had in that area shortly after its formation following the… Read More