W. W. O'Neil

Hartford, John

picture

W. W. O'Neil
Steamboats
River steamers
Towboats
Coal

The W. W. O'Neil was another powerful Pittsburgh coal tow-boat operated by one of the \"Coal Barons\" - William O'Neil. She was built at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1881. Her dimensions were:- 201 x 46.2 x 8.0 feet; tonnage, gross and net, 779. The St. Louis Republic under date of March 18, 1890, reported her with a tow of coal bound south from Pittsburgh to New Orleans which was estimated at 709,517 bushels or 28,331 tons. It is said that the first coal tow taken down the Ohio by steam was Daniel Bushwell in 1845 with a stern-wheel boat called the Walter Forward, carrying 3 boats of 2000 bushels each. Towboats now carry an average of 18 barges and flats containing 600,000 to 700,000 bushels or 20,000 tons. (This in 1890!) While enroute down the Ohio River in May, 1901, with 31 barges of coal she hit the L. & N. bridge at Henderson, Kentucky, with her tow, sinking four barges in forty feet of water. When ascending the Ohio River near Warsaw, Kentucky, with an empty tow on March 5, 1902, she broke her port cylinder, breaking both the cylinder and follower heads; repairs amounted to $1200. In July, 1902, she went south with a coal tow consisting of 31 coal boats and 12 barges; Billy Smith and Lute Moore were in the pilot house. On July 8, 1905, she struck a hidden obstruction in the Louisville and Portland Canal near the Louisville Harbor and sunk. She was subsequently raised and repaired at a cost of $2975. On January 27, 1906, she was thrown against the bank at Evansville, Indiana, by a wind storm and sank several barges in her tow.

Items in the UMSL Digital Library are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated. The contents of the UMSL Digital Library are made publicly available for use in research, teaching, and private study. Although the nature of archival and manuscript materials sometimes makes it difficult to determine the copyright status of an item, it is the user's responsibility to use them according to all applicable terms. Please contact the contributing partner for additional information regarding copyright status of a particular digital image, text, data set, or sound or video recording.

p-29-ovr-2-000160

Herman T. Pott National Inland Waterways Library