The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1922-02-01

The launching process is simple
one. Lashings : It have held the raft
in place in the "cradle" during con-
struction are thrown off; the "cradle"
itself is dismantled; and, with the
first high water, the raft is afoat
Possibly deck load is added. Ben
son raft Number 81, for instance, with
length of 1886 feet, beam of 55 feet
depth of SO feet and draft of 2S
feet, and consisting in itself of about
four and one-half million feet of tim
ber, carried deckload of 100000
shingles, 100000 lath and 10000
lineal feet of cedar poles. Within the
body of the raft there was, besides, a
total weight of 1875 tons of chain and
cable in the "herringbone" skeleton.
With the raft afloat and ready for
it's voyage an ocean-going steamship
that is magnified towboat with 1000
or $500 horse power in her engine
room, swings in line ahead of the ire
mendous log-built craft and makes
fast her two-inch steel towing hawser
to the towing link on the end of that
backbone of chain that runs through
vic SCiCSI VI IIlc IdlG,
Then river tug, fussy little body
important and officious over the
responsibility of guiding the way
down the sea, backs down to the bow
of the bigger towboat and there make
fast her own towline.
A gray-haired man on shore sur
Veys the whole scene, sees that all is
ready, then waves one arm at the men
standing at the mooring lines and
shouts, "Cast off,"
Fro mthe bass-voiced siren of the
big toWboat there spurts single
burst of steam-a grunt in ship-lan-
guage that means, "Let's CO." The
little river tug echoes the remark
with a single burst of steam; but she
speaks in falsetto-"Let's GO" That
makes it unanimous. Bells jingle in
two engine rooms. Two towing haw-
sers stretch out, dripping water. And
the raft moves slowly out into the
stream bound dow nthe Columbia for
the sea and San diego.
Once outside the river muoth and
in the open sea, the little river tug
casts off, puts smartly about, screech-
es a hurried farewell to her big COM
panlon and goes scurrying back to-
"oiN Vic SOluliDlu. Inc cVGS-
sci grunts an absent-minded good
bye then swings her nose to the south
ward and, with her huge consort far
behind her at the end of her drooping
hawser, she settles down for the long,
two-week pull down the coast.
Despite it's name, the Pacific is no
mill pond. The earth's biggest ocean
has its tempestuous moments of tenn
peramcnt; even when bccalmcd, it's
blue surface rolls with long, heaving
swclls. 1t was those long, heaving
swells that played havoc with the
early raft ts-broke their backs, ripped
loose their towing hawsers and strew-
ed the bealhes for miles with their
logs. Today the herringbonc that
John Fastabend builds through the
lenters of the RATS has beaten the
swells- John Fastabcnd's herring
bone, helped out by a mechanical de-
vice known as towing engine.
With every rolling heave on the
towing hawser, the Fastabend herring
bone arrangement of steel through
the center Of the raft tightens the
grip of the encircling bands of chain
and cable; and thus with every hcavc
and more ccnrnrthv.
Inc towing engine is steamdriVcn
automatic contrivance that perches on
the stern of the towboat and devotes
its attention solely to the dropping,
straining towline, which it holds over
big, grO0vcd reel. In effect the
towing engine is spring, an elastic
band in the towlinc. It's business is to
equaliZe the strain to take in the
slack when the pull eases off and to
pay the line out slowly when the pull
increases on the crests of the swcls
With the herringbone at work in
the raft and with the towing engine
at work on the towboat, all is serene.
On the rainfall of the steamer George
w. Fenwick, at sea on a haZy, lazy
autumn afternoon and bound from
Astoria to San Diego with a raft Of
logs in tow "a deckhand sits contented-
ly in the sun. He runs an appraising
eye back alon gthc dripping, twang-
ing towline of steel to the log raft,
nosing it's way easily through the
swells like a gigantic and halter
broken whale. He spits expertly over
the rail and to an oiler who has come
up for air he remarks:
."Wcll, Blackic, this is Wednesday
and the tenth day out. Well dock in
San Diego Saturday in time for you'n
me to run down to Tia Juana and see
if there's any Of the old red-cye left"
And meanwhile, back on Wallace
Slough up the Columbia, John Fasta-