Cargill’s Carneida and her sisters were unique enough, forgotten enough designs that when I stumbled onto this image yesterday AFTER posting, I decided to dedicate a whole post to Cargill’s vessels on the Barge Canal. The resemblance to the cargo portion of the 1000-footers currently on the Lakes is unmistakable although she’s less than a third of their size, but Barge Canal max. She even has a hatch cover crane that runs along the deck.
This image would be the maiden voyage. After construction in Leetsdale PA, she headed down the Ohio, up the Mississippi to the Illinois. John MacMillan Jr. joined this vessel in Cairo IL for the voyage to Chicago. There, Carneida was loaded with 1900 tons of corn. On August 22, 1940, eight miles off Wilmette IL on Lake Michigan, however, the vessel found the weather not as favorable as predicted and swamped the towboat and two of the barges in almost 80′ of water! The third barge broke free and floated away.
In early September, a diver reported that the units were still connected and resting right side up on a coarse gravel bottom. The found a salvage company that brought the corn up first. The towboat and two barges stayed on the bottom until May 1941, then winched to the surface. Once cleaned up, the two main engines and two auxiliaries ran.
The lesson learned for the subsequent Carneida-class boats was . . . to put significantly less than 1900 tons of cargo into the holds for the Lakes portion. These were canal cargo carrier, Barge Canal max ones.
Also after posting yesterday, I stumbled upon this version of the last photo in yesterday’s post: this clearly identifies the boat as Carutica, an Odenbach vessel launched in 1946 with substantially more space in the towboat portion of the unit. The location is clearly below lock E-2 in Waterford.
All photos here from the archives on the Canal Society of New York.
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February 16, 2022 at 12:46 pm
vivian
If that was a Cargill’s barge… where’s the beef?
February 16, 2022 at 3:02 pm
William Lafferty
More great photographs, Will.
The Cargill barges had no hatch cranes. That appears to be the frame for a tarpaulin, perhaps used for a christening ceremony. Photographs indicate the hatch covers were wood, covered by tarps. The Carneida loaded at what was usually called the “Northwestern” elevator, but owned by Cargill, far down the Calumet River at 122nd Street. Local newspaper reports said it loaded only 40000 bushels of wheat, probably to maintain some semblance of freeboard. It left 17 August 1940 but returned a few hours after departure when the barge couplings began to loosen. It left five days later, maybe loaded with more product, and got no farther than my alma mater when it encountered high seas (well, high for it, anyway) and became swamped. Great Lakes Towing Company tugs New Jersey and Maine released the grounded barge on 3 October 1940 and brought it to Waukegan. Evanston diver Guilford Falcon managed to arrange the Carneida and its attached barge so that they could be towed while underwater to shallow water off Waukegan in May 1941. They were refurbished that summer by the American Ship Building Company plant at South Chicago. You mentioned the Mayan a few days ago, briefly in the Cargill fleet. It was a World War I “laker” built 1919 by the Toledo Shipbuilding Company as Lake Festus for the United States Shipping Board. Cargill bought it at a marshall’s sale at Hoboken on 26 June 1935, for whatever reason, and sold it the next year. It ended its days as Valerio when it foundered off the coast of Brest, France, on 14 July 1947 with no loss of life.
February 16, 2022 at 7:50 pm
tugster
Thx, William. Some interesting corrections you make and details you add. I see that G tug New Jersey is still at work and Maine only recently came to its end.
February 16, 2022 at 3:26 pm
Lee Rust
In that first photo, there seem to be two swimmers floating in the water off to the starboard of Carneida. I wonder if they were official observers of some kind, or merely local gawkers.
February 16, 2022 at 7:47 pm
tugster
I’d seen those, thx for mentioning. My vote goes to . . . gawkers! But their swim is recorded for posterity!
February 16, 2022 at 4:39 pm
adkscout
I don’t remember any of these Cargill barges. Lot’s of other ones, but not these. Thanks for the info.
February 16, 2022 at 7:52 pm
tugster
Lots of Erie/Barge Canal memories will be lost unless they are mentioned now and then.