Topic starter
30/03/2007 1:56 pm
From Wednesday's Marietta Times
ST. MARYS, W.Va. — An empty barge struck the Hi Carpenter Bridge between St. Marys and Newport Tuesday morning, closing the structure to traffic for nearly 30 minutes...
...A press release sent by the Coast Guard’s Marine Safety Unit reported the M/V C.J. Queenan and its 15-barge tow collided with the bridge.
The headline and the first sentence says that a barge struck the bridge, since it was part of a 15 barge tow that was connected to a M/V at the time, isn't the proper term that a tow hit the bridge?
30/03/2007 2:18 pm
Bruce, the short answer to your question is "yes". A barge is not good for anything but storage unless it is faced up to and pushed by a towboat or pulled by a tugboat. The entire unit then becomes a "tow". You can have a 1 barge tow or an 80 barge tow.
31/03/2007 3:04 am
Laymen, especially newspaper reporters, tend to refer to tows as "a barge".
02/04/2007 3:14 pm
What really gets my goat is when the local print and TV media call a towboat a tugboat. They don't see any difference. The thing is that I live in Missouri; I don't think there's a tugboat to be found in these waters!
02/04/2007 8:58 pm
Yeah, Michael, that gets my goat, too, but there IS a tugboat near you! Luhr Brothers Construction Co. has at least one, maybe two that are from time to time at their yard and dock in Columbia, IL 3 or 4 miles below the J.B. Bridge. There are tugboats on the Western Rivers, though one has to look long and hard to find them.
One other thing that gets my goat: We are planning to move from Memphis soon and have made an offer on a house in Paragould, AR, not far from Jonesboro. People look at me funny, surprised, and think I'm starting a new career, since the Mississippi River doesn't run through Paragould. When I tell them I can live anywhere I want and will continue with my present employer and absolutely nothing will change except my address, they simply cannot fathom it -- and these are educated people who know at least something about my work and what it entails!