Just another reason to own a tug !!

A friend of mine sent me this story early this year and I really had trouble believing that it was a true tale. So I researched this nautical episode and sure enough it is 100% authentic. Knowing that we would be traveling past the location of the original bridge on the Tombigbee River, I kept a sharp outlook so that I could take lots of pictures of what remains today.

These are the facts and nothing but the facts, as Jack Webb use to say:

It happened in April 28, 1979, at the old Rooster Bridge just south of Demopolis, Alabama. The tugboat name was CAHABA. At its helm stood Captain Jimmy Wilkerson, his pilot Earl Barnhart, as well as two deckhands. The 80-foot 1,800hp towboat CAHABA was dropping two barges full of coal down the Tombigbee River in Western Alabama. It had just refueled approximately fourteen miles upstream in Demopolis, Alabama. It was owned and operated by the Warrior and Gulf Navigation of Mobile, a subsidiary of Pittsburg Steel, and was on its return trip to the McDuffie Coal Terminal at the mouth of the Mobile River to export its cargo.

As the CAHABA approached the Rooster Bridge, a drawbridge along the Dixie Overland Highway and Route 80, Captain Wilkerson prepared to uncouple the barges. This was a common practice and it allowed the barges to drift under the eastern span of the bridge where the currents were less harsh. The tugboat would then reverse upstream and pass through the western lift span to catch up with the barges. The deckhands proceeded to remove the rigging and the winch wires but for some reason they neglected to do so on the starboard side. To make things worse, that year's spring rains had seen particularly harsh with the river level high and the currents particularly swift. The boat, with a cable still strapping its starboard side, began to align itself with the bridge and slowly list. Throughout the ordeal, Captain Wilkinson never left the helm. As he recognized that his 37-foot high tugboat would be pulled into the 11-foot span of the eastern span, he yelled into his loudspeaker: "All right, y'all, this ain't no fire drill. Get off the damn bridge!"



Though the wheelhouse filled with water and Wilkinson was left holding onto the portside door frame, the boat amazingly enough righted itself at the other side. Onlookers were sure that the tug was doomed. The three crew members, though badly shaken, were not seriously injured. A reporter Charles Barger, working for the Linden "Democrat-Reporter", quickly took his camera and snapped the photographs which are testament to a series of remarkable coincidences that righted this sturdy tugboat.

The reasons that are attributed to the unthinkable resurfacing of the CAHABA are two-fold. First, the ship had been refueled fourteen miles upstream and therefore had nearly a full tank of fuel, which acted as ballast and prevented the boat from rolling over, not unlike a buoy. There was no shifting of weight as the vessel laid over. It was somewhat akin to those punching bags from years gone by; when you knocked them down they just righted themselves again. Had she only been half full of fuel, she probably would have never come back upright. As an added benefit, the Warrior and Gulf Navigation Company had installed three to four feet of cement at the bottom of the ship. With the assistance of the tug Tallapoosa, which was waiting to pass the Rooster Bridge and the vessel Cathy Parker which was already downstream, they were able to shove the runaway barges into an empty cornfield downstream and come to the assistance of the CAHABA.

Though both the bridge and the tug suffered damage, the boat was swiftly repaired and put back into service. The bridge was demolished in 1980 and replaced. The CAHABA was sold and rechristened on June 11, 1999, as the "Capt Ed Harris". The tug now works out of Charleston, West Virginia for the Madison Coal & Supply Company. It just goes to show that there is nothing like a tug for stability on the water!

The video and pictures truly are amazing. Here are additional links:
http://www.maritimeconsultant.com/tugboat.htm
http://www.littleriverbooks.com/cahaba.htm
http://www.snopes.com/photos/accident/towboat.asp

The site of the bridge today: