Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1905-02-10
SOME STEAMBOAT NOTES.

thO NOb-cstlOnS.
Steamer Potomac will probably
leave lrviugton this (Frida, morn
ing for Norfolk.
The mud machine digging at the
mouth of Carriers creek has been,
laid up and crew discharged, unable
to continue ,Ee work on account of
coal giving out.
Herman Smith and Clarence
Brewlngton, with launch Ida Smith,
braved the ice last Saturday and at
Towles Point took mail off steamer
Potomac for Irvington and Weems.
The Chesapeake Bay from lower
Lancaster is Il sight to behold. Floes
of ice miles wide and long are drift
ing down the bay. at Windmill
Point, mouth of the Rappahannock,
1t is piled up seemingly twenty feet
high.
According to late issue (and that
means a week or more ago) of ne
Baltimore Sun the steamboat lines
out Of Baltimore had entered into a
compact not to run their boats until
the ice ceased to be serious obstacle
that the risk of damage to the
boats did not warrant returns in try
ing to the utmost to accommodate
the public.
The Wheaton Packing Company,
finding that the Potomac could not
get above Urbanna, have daily. for
week been trying with their motor
boat to break through the ice blockade
between Wheaton and Ur5anna.
The boat is loaded with .shucked
oysters and if she can get through
the ice up the river will make her
way to Norfolk.
Supplies of the stores throughout
the whole Northern Neck and South
side are running low. Not spool
OF darning cotton is to be procured in
lrvington, private persons are en-
gagged in butehering the kline and
porcine and coal oil is fast vanish
ing. Bacon and corn bread, how
ever, still hold ont; so hurrah for the
''outside rowl'
Sloop J. T. Russell, belonging to
L.. L. Buck, of Weems, which went
ashore off Norfolk on the Roads, will
be fioated with little damage. She
had ten tons of coal on deck, which
was all washed away. The coal
belonged to the mud machine dig
ging at Carriers creek, and will be
the machines loss. The load of coal
in the hold is supposed to have suf-
fered little damage.
Every morning brave little gaso-
line launches battle against new
formed ice in the channels of Carriers
Greek In efforts to reach points where
few bushels of oysters may be
bought or caught. To the oyster
business this weather is an annihila-
tor-so far as supply is concerned,
while prices are soaring high and
demands, yea, pleadings, pour in
from other parts for anything that
savors of the hivalve.
Why some Norfolk supply house
was not sup to snuff" and did not
put a cargo of provisions on steamer
Potomac Wednesday, we are at q loss
to understand. A drummer" could
have landed enough provisions at
these lower wharves on yesterday's
trip to have half depleted his House.
The "speak easy" men were up with
the times. At White Stone and
some other points it was said the
slippers" with lolling tongues, were
praying for the boats arrival, bear
ing their little god and its trusty
guardians. Things will be lustrous
for while now.
1t is said that conditions in Ches-
apeake Bay and the rivers and other
waters tributary thereto are worse
now than they have been for some
years. Within llfteen years only
three times has transportation been
blocked as now-in March, 1899;
February, 1895, and February, 1899;
and there is every indication that
the present month will yet excel any
of the three mentioned. Back for
more than twenty years no such
chilling of the earth or water was
known to equal that of the Novem-
Der just past. For that reason it
was safely predicted that when win
ter set in sure enough we would have
plenty of it.
No steamers but the big Merchants
u Miners ships are attempting to
leave Baltimore. For some weeks
steamer. Potomac, which, fortunately
for us, was caught outside when
Baltimore harbor froze tight, has been
making spasmotic trips between
Iryington and Urbanna and Norfolk,
though not until yesterday noon
Coming from Norfolk had she showed
her proud prov here for six days.
She has not been able to get higher up
than Urbanna, as the river above
that point is pretty much an un-
broken sheet of heavy ice. Aboard
of her were Capt. w. l.. Messick, DR..
l.. M. Irving, CAPT. J. H. Wheaton
and others who were caught away
from home more than week ago.
Capt. II. 9. Dayton, of little mail
steamer Owen billiard, which had
been unable to reach Urbanna for a
week, >on Wednesday chartered the
launch Greyhound, and with half a
dozen spirited volunteers from IT.
vlngton, attempted to make Urbanna.
They battled with the ice until with
in a mile of Urbanna, when they
could go no further. Launching a
skiff they pushed it ahead on the
ice and got within half mile of
shore when one of the volunteers took
cold bath. The ice proving too