"duckpond," or open space forward of the towboat AR Budd, was ...

-Steamboat Photo Company, Alan L. Bates Collection
The "duckpond," or open space forward of the towboat A.R. Budd, was only used for downstream movements.
By ALAN L. BATES
to New Orleans and converted it to oil instant. In another instant the throttle was
The A.R. Budd was built at the Hammitt fuel. The Defense Plant Corporation took closed and we headed for cover.
Yard at Marietta, Ohio, in 1906. It had a it over and ran it during World War II, But back to the A.R.
wood hull 145.2 feet long by 26.7 feet wide and sold it to Bisso in 1946. A hurricane Budd/Costanzo/Kongo. Prior to 1940 the
by 5.2 feet deep, and the engines from the blew it to pieces in 1947.
boat stuck to business and hauled coal for its
Frank Gilmore with 17 -inch diameter and So, for 47 years this fine towboat did various owners, often in the old-time woodsix-foot
stroke. Peter Budd organized the good service for a number of owners. The en coalboats, which were 26 feet wide. That
Diamond Coal & Coke Company, and the reason for its shift from the familiar Ohio 26.7 -foot hull width of the A.R. Budd made
boat was named for his son. George W. to the southern reaches of the Mississippi the boat ideal for duckpond towing.
Budd, Peter's brother, was the famed river in November 1942 was to convert the Our picture of it shows such a tow passeditor
for the Cincinnati Enquirer from Willard V. King, an immense sidewheel ing under a bridge, possibly at Sewickley,
the late 19th century until the 1920s. railway transfer boat owned by the Pa. The tow is made up in the 'duck pond'
The A.R. Budd was sold to Hillman Missouri Pacific, into an oil barge. We style, so called because of the open space
Coal & Coke Company in 1919 and com- were along on that trip. At New Orleans, forward of the towboat. This technique
pound engines were placed on it. They steam was raised on the Willard V. King was used for downstream movements
proved to be too heavy, and were replaced for power while the boilers on the Kongo only. The towboat's function was to conby
a set with the odd dimensions of 175/8- were washed. We and the captain's son trol the tow, not to push it, so much of the
inch diameter and 61/2-foot stroke. visited the engineroom on the ferry and time it backed or drifted and allowed the
Hillman sold the boat to the Costanzo admired those godawful big engines, the current to move the fleet, sort of a contin-
Coal Company in 1931. It was extensively largest either of us had ever seen. uous flanking movement. This tow conrebuilt
in 1932 and got four new boilers. "I wonder what would happen..." the sists of 12 coalboats and a fuel flat. A care-
In 1940 it became the Kongo (see the captain's son said, as he dropped the fill scrutiny reveals the runboards for the
September 1, 2003, WJ), owned by the levers and cracked the throttle. There was wheelbarrows from the flat over one of the
Kosmos Cement Company, and operated a loud "WHOOSH!" as the entire fleet drivers (the barges flanking the duckpond)
by Capt. Leo Birch McBride, who took it moved 15 feet up the Mississippi in an
-SEE DUCKPOND PAGE 25

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