The Ribbon - Part Eleven - Locks

June 8, 1988
On June 8th I woke about 5:30 A.M., showered and had breakfast with the crew. I went to the wheelhouse with Captain Price. We were tied up at Lock #53 still waiting our turn. By 8:00 a.m. we were along side and ready to lock through. We entered the chamber at 9:00. Lock #53 is one of the older locks and is still considered temporary. A larger one has been planned for the area ten miles from Moundsville and Locks #52 and #53 will be put out of use. Captain Price explained that the cells were made, sunk then filled with rock. He explained how the boards of the dam were lowered when the water was high so boats could go right over them. These two locks are the only two of this type remaining. We left the chamber about 9:30.

David and the crew were busy painting the level one deck. The gray makes the whole boat look newer and classier. Yesterday he and the first mate, Gary, finished up the smoke stacks. David was respected by his peers and by his crew because there was never a job on the boat that he would ask any one to do that he would not do himself. He had started like they all had as a deckhand and worked his way up to pilot. David had been one of the youngest pilots on the Ohio River and by his eighteen birthday had earned the rank of Master Pilot.


Entering the lock

After we locked through 53, we headed for Lock #52 where we were to pick up a barge or two in Paducah. We passed Metropolis by water a little after 1:00 p.m. We had passed there on land the day before looking for the boat. Metropolis has a billboard of Superman as you go through town! Past it at Fort Massac there is a reproduction of the original fort and settlement. Metropolis is not only the County Seat of Massac County, but on June 9, 1972 the Illinois State Legislature passed Resolution 572 which declared Metropolis the "Hometown of Superman”. It hosts an annual Superman festival in June of each year and has a large Superman statue and a small Superman museum. The newspaper could not be named The Daily Planet but is known as The Metropolis Planet.

We slowed down to get in line for Lock #52. We were waiting near the I-20 Bridge for southbound boats to clear the chambers. We could see the dam in the distance and it was bigger than #53. We again sat and waited and didn't lock through until 5:00 p.m. The wind was very heavy and going into the chamber was very slow. We entered the chamber at 6:00 p.m. and didn't exit until 7:00 p.m. While we were in the lock, a representative for the radar company came aboard and fixed the starboard radar. Just like anyone else working with towboats, getting on and off is the hardest part. He, however, was able to fix the radar and get back to shore before we headed away.
At Paducah a tug brought us two more barges before we received orders for quite a few more. We ended up pushing twenty-three barges which makes a long and wide load. A normal load is fifteen barges.

It rained for about an hour outside of Paducah and we pulled up to Smithtown Lock at about 11:30 p.m. Smithtown was a larger lock, more like the locks I remember going through when I was younger. It is a double chamber and we entered the starboard chamber. Both chambers are 1,200 feet long and Smithtown is in the Guinness Book of World Records for being the longest in the United States. On the lower end the wall was as high as our roof. The lock lifts a boat from 10 feet to 34 feet. This tow fit right into the chamber with only inches on either side, much like a foot into a shoe.