The sun., 1903-12-06
WINTER ON A COAL BARGE.
TINE or R11lL FOR TOVs
ALONG TIE COAST.
women and Children Left Ashore Now
Heavily Laden Craft VIII Some.
times Get Adrift in Rough Seas
chances Of Those on Board When
such . Thing Happens.

tuouOob OI IHObo OIL hOAF0 When
such . Thing Happens.
Winter gets no welcome from the coal
large msn.
We've all got our families ashore now
remarked the captain of a barge. sand
are ready for the months that no barre
man Nkaa.
"Our hard season has begun earlier shan
usual this year. Eight barges have been
lost at sea In the big blows of this fall. Nv
spring there will be more to add to the list
Of the missing.
Every winter of the seven I've been
working up and down the coast on coal
barges it has been 80. More barges than
any other class OF craft have been swal-
lowed up by the Atlantic OF late years bc-
tween Massachusetts and Virginia.
1Our wives and children know this well,
and II makes winter an anxious lime for
them. In most cases they would rather
60 along with us, as they do in summer,
than worry on shore; but the last place in
the world for women and children is coal
barge in winter.
1T is the most unseaworthy craft. when
loaded, that ventures outside bays and
rivers. With 400 or 800 tons of coal
aboard it sets as low and heavy as a water
logged derelict and is impossible to manage.
independent Of the tow, in heavy seas
-The most powerful of ocean tugs are
used to tow the strings Of three or four
barges that at all times Of the year you see
trailing through Long Island Sound, bound
from New York to Sound ports and Boston.
and coming up the coast from Norfolk. Va,
Baltimore and Philadelphia. Some strings
of barges make the trip all the way from
Norfolk to Boston, and these are the ones
that get the worst of it in winter.
"Those that ply between New York and
Boston haven't great many miles OF ocean
going. but coming up the coast there is
long stretch without port to which
tugboat captain can tow his string to get
shelter from gale. All he can do is to try
to ride 1t out, and on barge it's often
pretty hard piece of riding.
"You can fight the sea il you're on full
rigged ship. You're kept busy, anyway,
while on barge there is noth- to do but
see that the matches are fsuld .1ed down
tight, and then wait hoping f.. tthe best.
When the seas begin to pile up they don't
lift the barge. They wash over it.
From the deckhouse, which is ALWAYS
high on these boats. I've looked down
on the water eddying and foaming around
as If we were in a little shack on the ocean.
The barges are made so that this water will
be kept out Of the hold for a good while,
and as long as she g dry inside she'll float
But If the pounding OF the seas lasts too
long, and the water gets in somewhere.
away. and take your chances on getting to
the tug. The barge is as good as sunk.
1The strain on the towing hawsers is
something tremendous In heavy weather.
and when you're laboring along at night
as likely as not. there's fair chance that
out In front you'll hear the dull bursting
sound that comes with the parting of
hawser.
"The barge pays off little. With one
line gone you are pretty cure to hear and
feel the other 60 inside OF q minute, and
craft you can't handle. She drops back,
and is the most helpless tub that was ever
in storm.
4she settles in the trough the first thing,
% xhere the The, seas yea tumble on her like water,
course, and you and the crew have done a
lot Of shouting That's about all you
can do. It's up to the captain Of the tug.
He knows what's happened, and he
may be able TO help you, or he may not
That depends. If you are. the first barge
Of the string you stand the best chance.
because then the others are adrift, too, and
the tug is free to back, pass out more cables
and make fast again.
But suppose your drifting barge hap
pens to be the last. In that case the tug
would have to cut loose from the Other
two or three to come back to il. If the seas
are not running too high the captain will
do this, picJ,lng up the drifter and hauling
It close to the first of the string, so the
crew can heave over a ninethread and pull
aboard new hawsers.
with combers as big us houses. however
no tugboat captain can be expected to take
the big risk of losing two or three hargrs
for the sake of one. He can do nothing
for you, except to lay by for a little while
to give you chance to get aboard the
tug
boats over and get into them in the kind Of
a gale that will part the hawsers. Us
another trick to keep them from swamping
in the big seas, and still another to com"
up close to the tug and make a landing
"One minute you'll he away below her
in the trough, and the next you'll be tower.
ing on a crest looking down at her smoke,
stack. It's a wild piece of work If all
hands board the tug it's mighty lucky
crew. Usually some are lost, which means
more widows among the barge people