Tug and Barge mishap
Attention looking for Captain Michael L. Smith
I have had a request from Bo White.
Would anyone having information or knowing were to contact Captain Michael L. Smith
please drop a note to Bo White at catfishunter_98@yahoo.com .  Bo use to work with
Michael L. Smith (Mike) and has lost contact with him.  He would very much like to
locate him.  Thanks for any help in locating him.
Location unknown (read update text below pictures)

       Tug and barge approaching draw bridge

Tug releases barge as bridge has not opened

Tug tries to turn away

but is caught in strong fast flowing water

Tug is pulled down and comes out on other side of bridge

Tug is upright

By the smoke the engines must be running

 Here the tug is about to gain control of the barge

Gene supplied these pictures, but neither of us know who took the pictures
UPDATE

Here's a note I received from a ham radio friend Ron

Hi Bill,

I was going through your web site and ran across the pictures of the tug
going under the bridge.  You may find the attached interesting.  My son Steve
sent it to me.

Ron
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One of the guys in the TDR knows a captain who knows the captain that was in
charge of that boat.  Here's the rest of the story:
 

It was either late 1978 or early 1979, I have forgotten exactly, but anyway,
I am close on either... The river is the Tombigbee River and this happened
to be the record high water ever for that area. The towboat you see coming
down on the bridge is the Motor Vessel Cahaba owned by Warrior Gulf
Navigation out of Mobile, Alabama. Warrior Gulf is a subsidiary of Pittsburg
Steel. I know you are familiar with Birmingham's coal mines and steel mills,
and this company would haul iron pellets up to Birmingport and off-load to
make steel plate. On the return the barges were filled with coal for export
at the McDuffie Coal Terminal at the mouth of the Mobile River and at the
head of Mobile Bay.
The Bridge was the Old Rooster Bridge (since demolished and removed - I saw
the explosion to tear it down also) located below Demopolis, Alabama. The
land-side highway dead ends at the bluff, and you can still drive to this
site and imagine how high the river had to be to get to the bottom of the bridge...
The pass or Channel Span of the bridge was located on the far West side of
the river, or on the opposite bank from the photographer's standpoint. In
normal river flow, we would drop down near the rock bluff and steer through
the opening to pass southward with our tows of coal barges. Normal loads
were six barges, each measuring 195' X 35' and loaded to a 10' draft. This
allowed each barge to carry approximately 2,000 tons of coal (times six =
12,000 tons X 2000 pounds = 24 Million pounds of cargo.) The boat is 1800
Horsepower twin engine diesel built in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. It is named
after one of the eight "friendly" Indian tribes. It is the Motor Vessel
Cahaba. At the "sticks" or helm is Captain Jimmie Wilkerson, a long time
river pilot and was my personal friend - since deceased.

The river current was so very treacherous that we were forced to drop down
to the bridge in the slack(er) water on the left descending bank and when we
got down to the bridge, we uncoupled the boat from the barges and let the
barges drift down under the bridge. The bottom of the bridge would "shave"
the coal stacked in the barges off to a level surface. The next step was to
back the vessel upriver and then go over to the far West side and traverse
the bridge's channel span with the boat, and run down and catch the barges.
It was just too dangerous to try to bring the barges through the bridge span
in the current.
Anyway, Jimmie dropped down properly and with the entire rest of the crew
standing on the barges for safety, he began to reverse his engines to back
away. His stern would have to be kept directly pointed into the current or
the boat would travel sideways like a kite without it's tail. Captain Jim
was a fine pilot, but he made a small mistake and his stern was caught in
the current, twisted sideways and the river smashed him into the bridge
sideways. Notice that the boat re-surfaced right side up on the down stream
side.

What luck you say? Nope, WGN ballasted all their vessels with three to four
feet of cement in the bottom. The boat was like a little yellow rubber
duckie, and came back up like a duckie oughta do. The boat suffered major
cosmetic damages, but little flooding because of water tight doors, except
in the pilothouse. Notice the picture where the boat is not quite righted
and you can see water pouring out of the wheelhouse door. The chair washes
out, and Jimmie told me he was holding on to the controls with
all his might to keep from going out the drain and into the river.
He was very shook up and you can see him approach the tow of barges
downriver. Well he didn't get it together quite soon enough and he smashed
into the barges, causing further damage.
I next saw Jimmie about a month after this and we had a cup of coffee
together and talked about the incident. He was smoking a Camel Non-filter
but didn't even need an ashtray because his hands were still shaking too
much for the ash to build up to any degree. How do I know all this? I was on
the boat that went through the bridge immediately before the Cahaba. The
Motor Vessel James E. Philpott made the bridge and was headed south at close
to 15 MPH. For all you who don't understand, that is very fast on a
commercial towboat with that much tonnage.

Glad to pass this on to everybody...

Captain Michael L. Smith (Please see above note Bo White trying to locate)

-Steve