Quick post here . . . since barrel has sent me way up into catfish territory with this boat, Tom Stallings. Although the photo says it was built in 1919 in Charleston WV, the Charles Ward Shipyard records here do not list the boat. The 1929 records of the Chief of Engineers say that Tom Stallings replaced an earlier snag boat called Quapaw, a photo of which I located here. Although the Tenn-Tom exhibit is off my near-future itineraries for now, there’s a stern-wheeler snag boat saved and open to tours still out there, here. Has anyone been there?
Here’s another oldie that seems to have disintegrated into history, pipeline dredge Gillespie.
Many thanks to barrel for sending along these yellowed records.
I am in fact in catfish territory for a week, attending to family business.
3 comments
Comments feed for this article
June 7, 2016 at 11:35 am
William Lafferty
The Tom Stallings was Ward’s hull number 74, its keel laid 27 November 1928, and was propelled by twin non-condensing single cylinder steam engines, 10″ cylinder diameter and 4’2″ stroke, built by Ward. It was used primarily on the torturous Black River in Arkansas, assigned to the Memphis District of the Corps, and named for Captain Thomas Benton Stallings, a well known steamboat master on the White River. It was sold commercial to Patton-Tully Transportation Company in 1952 and dismantled at Memphis in 1954.
June 8, 2016 at 7:38 am
tugster
William– Thx for finding that right under my nose. I see now I misread the 1929 in white ink as 1919. Ah careless me.
June 12, 2016 at 2:35 pm
George Schneider
Gillespie is one of three Army Corps vessels by that name, each with her name rendered differently. This one was properly named GEN. G. L. GILLESPIE, and as the “card” says, was built by Ellicott Machine Company in Baltimore in 1915.