Alpha is the caption on the photo, but there’s no 1928 boat by that name on this list. Might it also have been called Captain Eric Bergland?
Convoy is one of the four sisters delivered by Leathem Smith in Wisconsin in the spring of 1941. I love the coil on the hawser rack. I posted photos of wo of the four sisters side by side in this post a few months back . . scroll.
You can read here a story of Evanick, christened in 2006 by the widow of its namesake. Here’s the Professional Mariner story of her, comparing the Texas-built Evanick‘s power (3000 hp) as twice that of Raymond C. Peck, the vessel she replaced. Peck became Martha T and , unfortunately, made casualty news here in March 2013.
Bluestone Drifter is not much unlike the self-propelled scows (SPS’s) used extensively on the Erie Canal. This “crane boat,” as the USACE calls it, comes from Utica IN in 2001, making it much newer than the SPS’s on the Canal.
Grand Tower, also Indiana-built, was commissioned in 2001.
Prairie du Rocher is a 2002 product of the same shipyard as Grand Tower and Bluestone Drifter.
Ditto Sanderford, 2005. I’m starting to want to make a trip along the Ohio visiting shipyards . . . soon.
Iroquois, delivered in 2005 from a Louisiana shipyard, operates from the Nashville USACE yard.
Barrel calls this Racine, but I can find no info about a newish USACE tug called Racine. Anyone help?
J. C. Thomas is a 2000 product of Jeffboat, also along the Indiana bank of the Ohio. Click here for another product of Jeffboat, Cape Henlopen, some folks’ favorite people mover. Is it true that Jeffboat is considered the largest inland ship builder in the US?
I don’t know the date of this photo of Derrick Boat #7 and tug Pilot, but the style of the derrick is quite similar to what is used in the Erie Canal.
And finally for today, there’s an unidentified USACE tug pushing dredge William L. Goetz. Anyone have an ID or an idea?
Many thanks to Barrel for these photos. More of them to come . . .
For an article on what is claimed to be the largest diesel towboat operating on the Mississippi–I’m always skeptical about superlatives–click here. That article actually describes what could be called MV Mississippi V. The largest one I’ve ever seen is MV Mississippi IV, now pulled up on a bank in Vicksburg, MS, a museum. Enjoy these photos I took there three years and four days ago.
tugster: a waterblog 
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January 7, 2016 at 2:28 pm
William Lafferty
The Alpha was built 1928 by the builder and at the location shown on the photograph for the Central Building Materials Company of St. Louis. 85 x 21 x 5.7; 75 gt, 51 nt; twin Fairbanks, Morse 6-cylinder Diesels, 360 bhp. CBM eventually became Missouri-Illinois Material Company. It was repowered in 1961 with a pair of Caterpillar D-343 Diesels, 600-bhp. I believe it stayed with the same owner until the mid-1970s. I’m sure Dan Owen can tell you more, since it operated in his neck of the woods its entire career.
January 9, 2016 at 4:26 am
eastriver
I’ve no problem believing the Mississippi to be the largest… in fact, I’m surprised at the qualifier “diesel-powered.” I don’t know of other forms of towboat propulsion extant on the river. She looks like a pocket cruise ship with towing knees. I saw her a few weeks ago pushing barges loaded with revetment mattresses, so she does work in that way, too. Reputed to be very posh inside.
January 10, 2016 at 3:33 pm
tugster
Dan Owen writes this in reference to the RACINE question: “Although there is no name visible on the boat, its “unofficial” official name is RACINE, because it works at the Racine Locks and Dam, Racine, Ohio, on the Ohio River. I don’t even see an equipment number on the boat. Perhaps there is one on the stern. You know the government, it has to be identified somehow.
”
And in reference to ALPHA, Dan adds “Here is a listing on the ALPHA as it appeared in the 1969 Inland River Record as well as an equipment list when it was offered for sale. It was scrapped in June 1973, still owned by Missouri-Illinois Material Co., owned since built in 1928 by one owner.”
I will add more info on RACINE and ALPHA in connection with “Thanks to Barrel 4”
ed.
December 10, 2020 at 5:48 pm
Steve Huffman
The Capt Eric Bergland was a sternwheeler, not s screw towboat, like the Alpha. Here are my notes on the Capt Eric Bergland:
CAPT ERIC BERGLAND / SARAH
Steel hull, built at Charleston, W.Va., by Charles Ward Engineering Works, 1928. 80 x 18 x 3.5. Fairbanks-Morse 4-cyl., 2-cycle Diesel, 100 hp at 400 rpm. Sternwheel 11.5′ diameter by 11’4″ long, 12 buckets with 18″ dip. Owned by U.S.E., Vicksburg, Miss. Sold 1947 to Capt. Rosenstock, Westwego, La., and renamed SARAH.