Sprague (towboat)
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| Class overview | |
|---|---|
| Builders: | Peter Sprague |
| In service: | 1902-1948 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | towboat |
| Length: | 276 feet |
| Beam: | 61 feet |
| Draft: | 7.4 feet |
| Installed power: | 2,079 HP |
| Propulsion: | coal-fired steam |
The Sprague built at Dubuque, Iowa by Iowa Iron Works in 1901 by Captain Peter Sprague for the Monongahela River Consolidated Coal and Coke Company, was the world's largest steam powered sternwheeler towboat.[1] It was nicknamed Big Mama,[2], and was capable of pushing 56 coal barges at once. In 1907, the Sprague set a world's all-time record for towing-60 barges of coal, weighing 67,307 tons, covering an area of 6-1/2 acres, and measuring 925 feet by 312 feet. [3]
She was decommissioned as a tug in 1948.
Legacy
A model of the Sprague is in the National Mississippi River Museum in Dubuque, Iowa. The boat was wrecked and burned in Vicksburg on May 15, 1974,[4] and pieces are still remaining in Vicksburg, Mississippi.[5]
References
- ↑ <http://www.mississippirivermuseum.com/features_halloffame_detail.cfm?memberID=31/
- ↑ "Pennsylvania Jack (Big Mama)". http://www.pajack.com/stories/pitts/bigmama.html. Retrieved 24 January 2010.
- ↑ "Mississippi River Navigation- Steamboat Navigation". http://www.mvn.usace.army.mil/PAO/history/MISSRNAV/steamboat.asp. Retrieved 28 January 2010.
- ↑ "A Mississippi Sidewheeler Is Burned at Her Moorings". New York Times. 17 April 1974. http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F10C11FC3C551B778DDDAE0994DC405B848BF1D3&scp=1&sq=towboat%20Sprague&st=cse.
- ↑ http://www.steamboats.org/traveller/lower-mississippi-river/vicksburg.html
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