The age-herald., 1900-02-13
GREAT COAL-TOW
 IS IN TROUBLE

From the Memphis Scimitar
 Ten coal boats, each containing f,o90 tons of coal, wont aground yesterday afternoon at Point Pleasant, Mo, about 150 miles from Memphis. and are now In a most precantous condition. Matters are growing worse every hour. for the river is falling and each minute leaves the boats higher and drier than before.
 The boats are part of the mammoth tow of forty coal boats, this seasons rec ord.breaker which the big Joseph B. Williams has been Bringing from Pittsburg to New Orleans The value of the coal anu boats is about $s0,0e9.. It belongs to the Moaongahela Consolidated Coal and Coke company.
 The first news of the wreck reached Memphis yesterday afternoon, when MT Tice. secretary of the MonongaIhela Con solidated Coal and Coke company, told MT N. M. Jones, the Memphis manager for the Pittsburg Coal company, of it by long-dis- tance telephone.
 Later MT. Jones received the following telegram from Captain James G. Beazell, of the Williams Joseph Williams grounded ten boats at Point Pleasant. Can we get coal holsters and barges to 4ighten? An 
 swer quick"
 Mir Jones immediately made arrange ments to send the aid asked for 1he Harry Brown, another big towboat is now coming to Memphis with a tow of twenty coalboats and eighteen barges. She is now within few miles of the city, and is ex- peeted at any time. As soon as she arrives here and places her tow. she will be start cd to the Williams, and will take with her many empty barges and the powerful coal holster, which the PittsDurg Coal com pany uses In the Memphis harbor.
 This holster scoops out many barrels of coaa at each "clutch," and with it it is hoped to remove enough coal from the dis abled boats to the barges to Tighten them, so that they can be saved Even if the boats cannot be saved, 1t is hoped that the coal can be.
 Immensify of the Tow
 It is difficult for the initiated to get a proper conception of the immensity of the Joseph B. Williams tow. The demand for coal Is so brisk that the operators are un- able to meet it. European buyers have en- tered the market, and a large portion Of the Williams tow will If it reaches New Orleans, find it's way to Europe. The French and English governments are both said to be buying largely, and for this reason, and because the "coal stage" of water at Pittsburg came too late this year, the coal operators have been rushing the black diamond south as rapidly as possi- ble.
 When the coal stage came there were many millions of hIlShe1c of roaJ loaded and ready for shipment at Pittsburg, and with the first coal water hundreds of acres of barges were showed down the Ohio, to be distributed at all cities along that and the Mississippi river.
 The towboat Williams has the distinction of caring for the largest tow ever assem- bed on the river for one boat and to this boat was given the honor of towing this seasons largest tow, the one which is now in trouble at Point Pleasant It was brought down the Ohio and assembled at Louisville, and there taken in charge by the Williams.
 The tow consists of forty coalboats. each of which contains as now loaded 26 900 bush els, or 10000 barrels, or 1000 tons of coal The entire tow contains 100000 bushels. Coalboats and coal barges are often con- | fused. The boats hold much more than | the barges. The average length of them is | TO feet, the width is 26 feet and the depth | ten feet. The capacity is 26,O00 bushels The boats are lowed ten abreast, and | the Williams tow covered a space on the | river equal to the distance from Madison 1 to Adams street, and almost as wide as | city block If the tow was strung out to l the width of one coalboat it would be one | and two-thirteenth miles in length To transport the coal in this tow by rail l forty trains of forty cars each would be I necessary.
 The biggest tow ever handled by one | boat. which, as stated. was handled by the | Williams. consisted of fifty coalboats. The river in the twenty-four hours, which ended this morning at o'clock, fell IA | feet, a rapid fall, and one which makes the position of the wrecked boats most dan gerouS.