Towing company "junk" fleets

Anybody know the name of the towboat sunk in Lake Ponchetrain in Ted's post.

The Name Is ..........

Greetings From New Orleans ,
Bill , I believe the name of the boat tied off in Lake Ponchetrain , just west of the mouth of the Tchefuncte Rive is the M/V Freedom , which I was told was formerly owned by the Dravo Sand and Gravel Company . I was laso told that when the Crounse Co. came to the lower river they purchased the boat but I am not sure who purchased it fro them and attempted to make it a " Bed & Breakfast " , on the lake . I was also told that Hurricane katrina damaged and partially sunk the Freedom and thats how she came to the state she is in . Hope this may answer a few of your questions .
Smooth Sailing !
Ted

Bill Judd;16166 wrote: Anybody know the name of the towboat sunk in Lake Ponchetrain in Ted's post.

Thank you Ted so very much. The picture has been haunting me ever since you posted it. The boat was so familiar and yet I could not give it a name. Ironically it was rebuilt just up river a ways from my home. George Crounse, Jr. decided to leave his Dad's business and start a new firm called St. James Towing at Covington, LA. The FREEDOM and the RELIANT were his start up boats. The FREEDOM was originally a pool style boat and had its piolothouse raised in the rebuild. Dravo had three identical boats, the FREEDOM, VICTORY and Wm. PITT. Again, Thanks so much

FREEDOM correct

Hey Bill, Steve Huffman told me to join this group and straighten you guys out. This is my first post. The FREEDOM has been at that location prior to 1997 when it first sank. It was raised and sank again, since at least 2006. Ownership has been in doubt for 15 years. George, Jr., company was St. James Transportation Co., Mandeville, La. The other start up boat was the JUANITA WHITE, which he renamed CRESCENT. He later changed this name to DEBORAH. As DEBORAH, it was sunk June 24, 1999 in the Gulf of Mexico off Pensacola as a fish haven.
I do not know how this group operates or if anybody knows who I am, but I would like the person who took the photos of the LUNGA POINT being raised to contact me as I would like to have a couple of those images in high resolution so that I could print and add to my photo collection. I do not know if my E mail address is shown anywhere but it is

[email protected]

Welcome aboard Dan. I guess we'll let old Union Barge Line people in our group. You've certainly earned your place. Of course about half of the group never heard of UBL. To the other posters, Dan Owen and his brother started taking boat photos back in the 1950's from an island hideaway on the upper Ohio. After his UBL tenure Dan was Associate Editor of the Waterways Journal. Dan is also the editor and compiler of the Inland River Record. If you need more info just ask Dan. We had all better be real careful about the tales we tell as Dan is a fountain of knowledge and can seperate truth from fiction.

Sink, Sank, Sunk!
Let's explore the junk!

All of industry contributes to these fascinating piles. How do they happen? Well, the boat wears out, but the radar set is new and the cookhouse range has another hundred thousand miles in her. Besides, somebody may want the whole boat. Louisville has two noteworthy river scrap heaps owned by the McBrides, one at Harrods Creek and another below New Albany.
Captain G. W. McBride devises, invents and perfects much useful gear from it. I helped him make a swing meter one time from odds and ends. It worked too well at first, but George tamed it. He made an oil filter burner from a fifty five gallon drum and a leaf blower and saved several hundred dollars. His home air conditioner heats the domestic water. The penalty he pays is that nobody else can figure how to work his inventions.
When we were kids he made a diving helmet from a five gallon lard can with air provided by two manual tire pumps...when the pumpers tired the diver came right up!

Despite what do-gooders and civil cleanup campaigns say, America would come to a stop if there were no junk.

Ain't nobody got more towboat and tug pictures than Dan Owen! Glad to see you posting on the board Dan. WELCOME!