Sternwheeler Gravel Gertie

Hey, Jonathan. I don't know, but will speculate until others more knowledgable jump in: she looks like a Material Services towboat to me. They operate on the Upper Illinois River and move copious amounts of basic construction materials. This also fits in with her low profile/retractable pilothouse. I had never heard of GRAVEL GERTIE, but would bet M.S.C.

The most interesting thing to me is the drive system to the wheel --- a cranked shaft, then a pitman to the wheel and another crank. And as was discussed last week on this board, a real good shot of a steel pitman!

Capt. Bob is right, Gravel Gertie was a Material Service boat. The boat was built at Howards in 1926. It was a big boat, 122'l x 23'w. Had two Winton diesels with electric drive. Very much like the first J.L. Beatty. Originally a COE boat , Material Service added the retractable pilothouse. The first time I saw her I couldn't believe my eyes, a retractable pilothouse sternwheeler. By the way she really threw a big wheel. When I saw her in '53 or'54 she was owned by Havanna Towing. I last saw her sunk near Peoria.

Capt. Bill, this is maybe getting off track for this thread, but since we started by talking about Material Services boats, maybe not so far afield after all. Can you tell us about some names of boats, specifically those named for people? Material Services has the IDA CROWN; before ACBL bought her and renamed her FRANK HAENDIGES, SCNO had a boat named ROBERT CROWN. Were these Crowns related, and if so, how? Were the companies somehow related? Another somewhat unusual name is Frame...Ingram has the CLARENCE G. FRAME, and Southern Towing Co. used to have a boat named CLARK FRAME, which was, as far as I can tell, never owned by Ingram. Who were (are) the Frames? (not to be confused with Frane, a Marquette/ne American Boat vessel). There are lots of other boat names I wonder about. Can you shed any light on these, or other names?

Capt. Bob, here is what little I know as to Material Service. The company was started in 1919 by brothers Henry, Sol and Irving Crown. The company remained in the Crown family till sold in the 1990's ?? to General Dynamics. It is now the fifth largest aggregate producer in the U.S. Like so many other companies it was sold to Hansen Corp, a British company, in 2006. As to boat names, at least those I knew in the 50's and 60's, were as follows:
Robert Crown, Ida Crown, Irving Crown, Herman Crown and the Masco I and Masco II. Masco stands for Material Service Corp. As to the Frame boats I have no idea. There was some sort of tie in with the Crown family and the Sobel family as to forming SCN &O. There was a big boat named the Arnold Sobel that ran for SCN & O, now the Kelly Eckstein. This could become an interesting thread on river families and boat names.

Jon, Bob,

The Gravel Gertie was named Gouvernor when originally built.

Kind of a late response to this thread, but UW-LAX has a photo of GERTIE's previous incarnation as the Corps' GOVERNEUR. Search for steam18985.