Friday, June 19, 2009

Scootin' through the rakes



Back in the 1980s, I think it was, I was listening to a couple of towboat pilots talk about an accident near Cincinnati. It seems a couple of guys were out in their motorboat and they saw a towboat come by pushing some barges that had the rake (slanted) ends facing each other. The guys in the boat thought it would be cool to go in between the rakes on one side and come out on the other.

They didn't notice, though, that the rake ends faced each other on one side of the tow only. They found  the other side had the box (square, or upright) ends facing each other. Until it was too late.

Needless to say, this did not go well for the boaters.

Reality or urban legend? I have no idea, but I have no doubt that sometime in the past 50 years, someone has tried it.


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