With this splash, the Mississippi River gained a new towboat. A cursory search of the Google News Archives didn’t turn up a story about the launch, but I know The Missourian did a story. If and when I find it, I’ll post an update.
The launch happened just south of the Missouri Dry Docks, shown in the photo. Note St. Vincent’s College and Seminary, now River Campus, in the background of some of the pictures.
Gallery of launch photos
Click on any photo to make it larger, then click on the left or right side to move through the gallery. The gallery is in time sequence order.
Bro Mark, who likes to tweak my tail, sent the following email this morning:
“Subject: Your code is showing (blush)
Noticed in the last couple of postings that your code is showing at the end.
You may use these HTML tags and attributes:…”
That’s because Kid Matt updated the WordPress platform this blog runs on. The cryptic stuff at the bottom is just to let you know that you can insert codes that will insert links, make type Bold or Italic, etc.
Unless you deal with that stuff all of the time and want to take advantage of it, bleep right over it like I do names in a Russian novel.
There was another launch in 1981 I believe. I was on that boat construction crew for a while, and was there the day it launched. The name of the boat in 1981 was the Jim Buttry. Do you have any pics of that one? The ones you posted here are really cool!
Tim
Tim,
Sorry, I can’t help you with the 1981 launch. I was long gone from Cape by then. You should ask Fred Lynch at The Missourian. He might have covered it.
I shot last spring.
This is the C.W. Rushing boat. Here’s a link to a more current image of the boat.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/esclade_01/4758795831/
Thanks to my parents, Bobby Joe and Shirley Busche, for finding this link.
Tim