The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-04-12
FIRST SHIPMENT ON THE WARRIOR RIVER
 WITHOUT TRANSFER
DeBardeleben Coal Company Sends Coal Loaded at Tip pie Direct to New Or
 leans in Steel Barges

The first shipment of coal ever made 1 by the DeBardeleben Coal company from i Cordova to New Orleans by barge with out transfer left the tipples of the com pany on the Warrior river at 6 o'clock 1 last night The shipment was made in a steel self -propelling barge of the Ala
 bama-New Orleans Transportation com pany, and the load was $50 tons. The distance of approximately 600 miles to New Orleans will be made by the barge in four days. In view of the fact that Is lockages have to be made between Cor doya and Mobile. this time is considered exceptionally good
 J. l.. Brierton of New Orleans, general
 manager of the Alabama-New Orleans
 Transportation company, came up the river on the barge, which reached Cor dova yesterday afternoon. The load of $50 tons was placed on the barge in a little more than two hours. The barge used is one of the flelt of self propellers used in the Warrior river coal trade of the Tennessee company, but it was di- verted temporarily to make this trip for the DeBardeleben company. Whether plans are under way by which the com pany is to transport coal from Cordova
 to New Orleans without unloading for the DeBardeleben company is not known. '"The coal being sent to New Orleans by the Tennessee company and that of the DeBardeleben company is of the highest grade, being decidedly the best sold for bunkerage purposes in New Orleans l said MT. Brierton, general manager of the barge company, who was at the Tut wiler last night. Sometime ago some Alabama coal of very low grade and very poorly washed was sold in New Orleans l to the steamships for bunkerage pur- poses, and for time it gave Alabama coal a black eye in that market. How ever, the coal of the Tennessee company and that of the DeBardeleben company is of such high grade that it has stood the most exacting tests made by the steamship companies, and when used in transa tlantic steamers has surpassed any other coal ever sold in New Or leans.
 While the coal trade in New Orleans at the present time is very dull, the out look for the future of Alabama coal in that market is bright The lack of steam CTS now, due to war conditions. is the priE cipal trouble, and that fact is largely responsible for the inability of Alabama operators to greatly increase their mar
 ket there.
 The steel self-propelling barges oper-
 ated on the Warrior by our company are
 the ony ones that can make the trip down
 the river through the sound to New Or
 leans without unloading the coal. The
 other barges cannot go through the
 sound. A barge similar in construction to l r,
 New Orleans will come down from St. Louis in a day or two to our city. John H. Bernhard. who is the head of the h. land Navigation company. which owns the barge proposes to have large fleet of these barges operate from New Or leans up far as St. Paul and Minne- apolis and later to extend the service up the Ohio, and other rivers flowing into the Mississippi. It is his plan eventually to take the products of the Birmingham district, as well as the business of New Orleans, upstream, and to bring back tc New Orleans the flour, grain and meat products of the country on the upper Mississippi
 MT. Brerton stated that he was here on business, but he could not at this time
 make any announcements regarding fu- ture activities of his company in the mat ter of river transportation. However, he | expressed the opinion that with adequate connection between the city of Birming- ham and the Warrior this city and dis 1 trict would be enormously benefited Mr Brierton is well known in the Birming- | ham district. having been connected with | the Tennessee company in important po- l sitions for a number I years, and later being the assistant to the vice president 1 and general manager of the Central Iron and Coal company at Tuscaloosa, when l J. Warner Shook was the operating head ! of that company. Mir Shook is now the advisory head of the Alabama New Or leans Transportation company.