The recent cold spell, which has caused so much trouble for the boats, seems to be slacking off.
The Coast Guard cutter Fern has been doing her usual fine job of moving the boats along.
The next problem the boats will face is the ice breakup. At the narrows, at Chillicothe Island, and several other points up river there are tight spots that become choked up with ice. The ice clogs, clear to the bottom, sometimes. When this happens the difficulties are multiplied, tempers become frayed towing knees become bruised, and sterns get battered.
Last Saturday night there was a “mule train” of boats that stretched from Rome to the club. Red, green, white and orange lights twinkled against the backdrop of the murky night. The rumble of the engines, the crunching of the ice, the clatter of wires and ratchets being horsed around on the steel decks, all added to the nautical din.
Voices blared out on the “bull horns” as the “Come on ahead!” or the “hold it. – Hold it. – Hold it!” rang out above the noise.
Remembering back about seven or eight years, we can recall a time when the “Hold it!” cry was a very real thing. We were out on the stern of the steamer Vicksburg taking pictures of the deckhands working on the icy decks. Two stern lines stretched back to the bow of the oil barge
which they were pulling.
The Vicksburg began to slow down as the thick ice ahead formed a blockade. The oil barge behind us began to creep up on us, the top towering above us. The pilot in the “knowledge box” was aware of the danger and began to shout over the bull horn to the boat behind us to, “Hold it., Hold it., Hold it!”
At the very last moment the barge came to a stop. The spoonbill of the barge reached about twelve or fifteen feet across the steamer’s stern! We were so startled and anxious about the business that we forgot to take what would have surely been the best pictures of the whole trip!
Along the Riverfront with Bob Burtnett was a column in the Chillicothe Bulletin from December 1952 until December 1975. The Chillicothe Historical Society recently turned those columns into a new book with the same title.
