hell, I don’t even have that anymore … besides, i’d take a train anyday anymore.
actually, i never ever spent a day in the deck dept. did logging, and similar jobs so know I would rather be below deck … did beat ice off the super structure for overtime though !!
The coal barges had stationary rigging
with steamboat ratchets and wires that
looked like a pigtail with chain links that
sometimes wasn’t even usable, I hated the
old stationary winches that you had to use
a cheater pipe on at least while trying to
loosen them!
phok, i recall my first time aboard a steamer (chevron mississippi) and had to run the steam winch…I was pumpman… … I hardly knew what i was doing and it was one of those ‘‘instantaneous’’ learning curves while the hands rigged the lines for docking… i still wouldn’t want to do that one !!
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Running a steam winch does sound fun but what Gmoney calls a “steamboat rachet” was just called a rachet by me. It is a +3 ft long hard iron turn buckle type thing that tightens all the slack out of the wires that holds the barges together while in tow. I don’t know if the ratchets or 35’ coiled wires were heavier but none of it was childs or old man play. Humping & throwing ratchets, 35’ wires & straps around for 12 hours a day would cost more than 300 bucks a day for me nowadays. Picture of sreamboat ratchet below. But about the old steam winches on the Chevron Mississippi, a nice story about her final voyage below too.
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welllll, sand pebble, thx for the story on the demise of the mississippi. I read it till they got to running it into the mud. although I wondered what became of it, oft times it may be better remaining ignorant.
I thought it may of ended up in asia hauling oil which i consider a fate worse than the breaker (sometimes) … anyway. i guess it goes the way of those of us that sailed her and other beloved ships. damnit !!
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I had a blast as a cruise boat driver, but I made more when I moved on to be a tug deckhand.