City of Pittsburgh Towboat

Hull built 1926 at Ambridge, Pennsylvania by American Bridge Company and completed at Coal Valley marine ways. Retired and in 1951 made into a landing boat. Came out after a trial trip on the Monongahela River to tow south in February 1927. On an upbound trip her tow struck a ferry at Norce, Louisiana (30 miles below New Orleans) on January 15, 1928, drowning seven people. Captain Blazier was released under $10,000 bond. This was the first boat to take a downbound tow through Henderson Island Chute, July 1929 with Captains Blazier and Nadal officiating. She was chartered to Standard Oil of Louisiana about 1935 and towed to Nashville. In April that year, pilots Crouse and Barnes jumped all Cumberland River dams with her and arrived in Nashville with 42 feet on the marks. In 1936 and part of 1937, she worked under charter to Standard Oil. She had worked for Standard in 1933 and in October 1933 hit Enterprise Rocks below Owensboro, Kentucky and was beached for temporary repairs. Lou Bradford, a frequent pilot, was one of the old-time “character” pilots of the river, noted for his straw hat summer and winter, his white starched shirt, collar, tie and diamond stick pin. A native of Augusta, Kentucky, Captain Lou died at age 69 on June 6, 1946. Robert Young of Elizabeth, Pennsylvania was chief engineer on her six or seven years and died in Elizabeth at the age of 61 on October 13, 1946. In January 1941 the Ohio Barge Line was formed and took over the City of Pittsburgh and the Monongahela. The City of Pittsburgh was slated to get a new hull and various alterations in 1946 but this never happened and she was eventually retired instead.