M/V Winnie C passes Huntington

This evening the rebuilt Campbell Transportation boat passed through my area shortly before sunset, allowing for some interesting light.

M/V Detroit

I may have missed the Winnie C yesterday, but I saw the Detroit today.

A missed opportunity

So yesterday evening I had to take my granddaughter somewhere a little before dark. After I dropped her off with her mommy, I thought I would run over to the river, which was less than a mile away, to see if there was something interesting. Usually when I do that I make a certain loop that allows me to check on a dozen or so miles of river.

But I didn't, because I was trying to be a good boy and save a little bit of money on gasoline.

As it turns out, I might have seen the rebuilt M/V Winnie C if I had made my rounds. Maybe not, but maybe so.

Yeah, nice guys finish last ... and without pictures of a rebuilt boat.

It went down the river, and the last I checked it was nearing the Meldahl locks. But this being the Ohio -- which essentially is a dead-end road once you're above Paducah -- if the boat went down the river, it will have to come back up. So there will be another chance.

Old postcards from Wheeling and elsewhere

The other day my brother Cliff Richie, the family genealogist, emailed me some photos.

He wrote, "I came across some old pictures and postcards that you might be interested in. One is a steam boat with Jones as a last name. The two post cards are very old. Notice on the Wheeling one, there are no autos, only horses. The one with the men standing on the wharf house could possibly be from one of the weir dams or some town wharf. Notice some have heavy gloves and work clothes on."

If anyone knows anything about the people, places or boats in these photos, we'd be glad to hear it. If there are any problems with copyrights, let me know and I will take the affected photos down ASAP.

 

Back to the others.

Catching up with some photos

When you don't see a whole lot of boats, you go back through pictures of ones you have seen lately and play with them to see what you get. So ...

The Enid Dibert in black and white.

The Galveston Bay upbound past Huntington.

The AEP Mariner on the Kanawha.

And the Hoosier State on the Kanawha.

M/V Luciana Moore, pre sunrise

Seen this morning on WV Route 2 north of Huntington, about 15 minutes before sunrise. The M/V Luciana Moore of Murray Transportation, formerly the M/V Titan.

 

 

I hadn't seen this boat this close since it was rebuilt about 18 months ago at South Point. The rebuild included a new, larger pilothouse. I saw it back in October north of Steubenville, but I was on a section of Ohio Route 7 where there was no place to pull off, plus we were in a pretty heavy rain at the time.

Big Sandy River Lock and Dam 1

A couple of days ago, I went down to the mouth of the Big Sandy River in search of boats. I saw a few, but none that thrilled me photographically. So, I went over to the small park in Catlettsburg, KY, where Lock and Dam 1 used to be.

The dam opened for traffic in 1904, according to the Kentucky Historical Society. It was removed sometime between 1959 and 1962 when the Greenup Locks and Dam on the Ohio River raised its pool. All that's left of it now is part of the lock wall that's barely above the water line at normal pool. Because of the rain we had last week, the river is up and the lock wall could not be seen.


The dam is remembered at the small park I visited, with plaques painted on each side of the floodwall opening there.

An artist's rendering of the dam adorns a couple of panels on the floodwall.

As with much of the floodwall in Catlettsburg, paintings of local scenes show historical events, places and people of the town, such as this one of a sternwheeler.

If you look on the boat, you'll see pictures of local people. I've heard at one time you could pay to have your image painted onto the boat as a passenger, as this couple did with their wedding photo.

Finally, there is one drawing on the floodwall that has always amused my son Adam and me. It's this one.

For one thing, this artwork shows the Ashland Oil towboat Ashland pushing a coal barge out of the Big Sandy. As far as I know, Ashland Oil boats pushed petroleum barges. If there ever was an Ashland boat pushing coal, no one has told me about it.

M/V Barbara

I saw this Crounse boat downbound passing Huntington yesterday. The late afternoon sun was so good that I figured I would try this HDR thing on the image for something different.

Gone But Not Forgotten: Ashland Oil marine operations (more)

For your consideration, from 1987, when Ashland Petroleum, a division of Ashland Oil, was about to christen its new towboat, the Valvoline.

First, the invitation.

The news release.

Here is a photo from the announcement, as provided by Ashland Petroleum. First is the black-and-white photo in its original form, then after I did a little cleaning up on it. I don't know why it aged so poorly.

I got to ride the Valvoline in spring 1988, when David Smith was captain. I boarded at the Belleville Locks and Dam and got off at Kenova, maybe. Or was it South Point? I can't remember, but I'm 90 percent certain it was Kenova. Someday when I dig into my deep archives I will find the article I wrote about the trip. I think there was a deckhand named Jim Chittenden, and the cook was from Vevay (pronounced Vee-vee, he said), Indiana, but again, I'm not certain.

Anyway, we had to wait a while to get through the old locks at Gallipolis. Namely, we had to wait for a boat called the Howard S. Guttman of Mon River Towing to lock through upbound. The Guttman was the old Vavoline, sold and renamed. The Guttman was scrapped a few years ago.

As for the Valvoline, it's now the M/V Nashville of Marathon Petroleum. I rarely see it up here in its old territory. It spends most of its time on the Mississippi.