Dravo

William “John” Kristen III, a native of Topeka, Kansas, and longtime resident of both St. Louis and Nashville, Tenn., died December 27 at the age of 69 with his wife… Read More

While Dravo had its innovative new diesel prop boats—such as the Wm. Penn and Ductillite—on the drawing boards, the Inland Waterways Corporation (IWC) was engaged in having three prop towboats… Read More

In late 1939, a brief announcement was made in The Waterways Journal and other publications that Dravo Contracting Company was working on designs for a towboat that would be much… Read More

The last column looked at the John W. Hubbard (Way’s T1444), a steam sternwheel towboat built by Dravo in 1936 for Campbell Transportation of Pittsburgh. It was the second of… Read More

In a recent visit with a good friend of nearly 50 years—Capt. William F. “Bill” Judd, a retired marine surveyor from the Cincinnati area—the fact that he had, as a… Read More

It can only be supposed that the attention generated by the success of the early Ward-built, prop-driven towboats commanded a lot of attention throughout the inland rivers. The Dravo Contracting… Read More

The Western Rivers towing industry was seeing much change in the year 1935. The Inland Waterways Corporation, the government-owned towing concern nicknamed the Federal Barge Line by rivermen, had been… Read More

This first column for 2023 may be more appropriate for the Easter season since it involves a resurrection. The boat that will be described is 65 years old this year,… 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

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