River World Field Trip, Alton, IL to Lake Charles, LA and back on a working towboat, 1956
October 24, 2015April 11. Wednesday
This morning breakfast had a bit of variety — link sausages, orange juice, stewed peaches, eggs and biscuits.
Still cloudy and cold at dawn. Passing Cabin Teele Light at 444.2 at 6 a.m., going about 15 miles an hour, which is fast. We were above Vicksburg. Lots of mistletoe in the trees, which were well leafed this far south, a deeper, more summery green than up the river.
It seems the “office” prefers the Atchafalaya” for our route to Lake Charles, and all morning the Captain and Roy, the mate, were hashing about the right way to run the Atchafalaya, It is a dangerous river, but I think the men like it because of the potential danger — so much more exciting than the “monotonous Mississippi”. Nevertheless, they were all on edge this morning.
7 a.m., past Vicksburg, and looked up the Yazoo to see the SPRAGUE, that historic old monster towboat which is now a Museum. A rocky shore, and glimpses of cannon and markers from a battlefield just south of the city, below which paulownia was just showing purple, and yellowwood or locust and rose acacia were in bloom. And the rain seemed to be over. The sky was lightening, the clouds were lifting, and four buzzards went up on the air currents to float high, always a sign that a rain is over. We passed mile 413 where in March the CAPE ZEPHYR impaled her first barge on a sandbar with a hidden snag and gouged out a $20,000 repair job, plus the loss of 24OO barrels of red gasoline which flooded the river and caused a good deal of consternation, especially since the port engine shoots sparks of large size, Sam raced to get the galley stove shut off and the engineers shut off the engines, but it must have been a tight moment there for a bit,
Past acres of yellow senecio in the woods, past Spanish moss at Mile 400, past white pelicans on a small bar, past eroding banks, and at Natchez … the sun! The sky was bright blue with drifting white clouds. The ZENITH, carrying autos, passed us, and we saw the big WAKE ISLAND, as we passed all we could see of Natchez back on its hill, the small of paper-factory smoke was in the air.
Dinner was fried chicken, asparagus, lima beans, salad, biscuits, gravy, mashed potatoes, and tapioca pudding with strawberries.
The afternoon was fine and mild, the pilothouse door was open, and the river stretched sparkling ahead of us. Cattle were grazing on the green levees, We saw several places where the revetment had slipped, a potential disaster if the water should rise. And everyone is still jittery about the impending Atchafalaya. Just as the morning crew argued about that touchy river, so did the afternoon crew do the same. Captain Brazie has never run the Atchafalaya, so it will be Captain Griffin’s job, and he has only done it about five times. The bridges are bad on the ‘Shaffalya’, and if you got wind ——