"Keeping Above Water", Input/Output, ME Departments, October 2006

input/output

by Harry Hutchinson, Executive Editor

Keeping Above Water

If you say "steamboat," people think of Mark Twain or of gamblers with derringers. Less likely to come to mind are coal-fired steam workboats, some of which were still moving barges along U.S. rivers in the 1950s and '60s—like the W.P. Snyder Jr., which is tied up on the Muskingum River at Marietta, Ohio. It's part of the permanent display of the Ohio River Museum, one of 60 sites operated by the Ohio Historical Society.

According to Fred Smith of the historical society, the Snyder, a sternwheel steam-powered towboat, may be the very last boat of its kind still in the water. Three other coal-fired steam workboats—the Omar (now a showboat known as the City of Clinton), the Geo. M. Verity, and the Lone Star—are all sitting on dry land at various sites in Iowa.

Having been in the water since it was built in 1918, the Snyder is in need of serious repair. Smith, who is project manager for the restoration of the Snyder, said a new hull is definitely in the cards. According to the Ohio Historical Society, the last major work was done on the Snyder in 1988. Structural framework, decks, and paddlewheel have deteriorated, and the wiring is unsafe.

In order to perform a top-to-bottom makeover, the Society will have to collect $1.4 million, plus another $50,000 to start a maintenance fund so that the Snyder will never wind up in its current condition again. The group is very close to meeting its goal, according to Kathy Wyatt, the development officer.

One of the last coal-fired river workboats is part of the Ohio Historical Society's museum in Marietta, Ohio. Its steam power plant (below), not used in years, is sturdy enough to be repaired.

The National Park Service has put up a $350,000 matching grant under a program called Save America's Treasures. The State of Ohio has been asked to contribute an appropriation of $876,000.

Andy Verhoff, site manager for the museum, told us the state money "is a pretty sure thing." However, he added that "we won't know till November." The Ohio legislature votes on the state budget after election day. The society hopes to seek bids around the turn of the year.

Another historical society, the Sons and Daughters of Pioneer Rivermen, is a source of funds for the project. Actually, that group has been the angel behind the Snyder all along.

The boat was built by James Rees and Sons in Pittsburgh for Carnegie Steel Co. and launched as the W.H. Clingerman in 1918. The towboat was renamed the J.L. Perry in 1938, and simply A-1 in 1945. Later that same year, Crucible Steel Co. of America bought the boat and renamed it for chief executive W.P. Snyder Jr. Crucible ran the boat until 1954, when it was retired.

Under all those names, the boat towed barges of coal, iron ore, and steel on the Monongahela and Ohio Rivers for 36 years. Its low profile for passing under bridges classifies it as a pool boat, and it's the only one of those around, we're told.

The Sons and Daughters group arranged for Crucible Steel to donate the Snyder to the Ohio Historical Society in 1955. The president of the Sons and Daughters at the time was a riverman, Capt. Frederick Way Jr., who personally brought the boat from Pennsylvania down the Ohio and the short way up the Muskingum to Marietta.

Jerry Sutphin, current president of the Sons and Daughters of Pioneer Rivermen, said the group has an endowed fund, which has provided money for routine maintenance of the Snyder over the past 50 years.

Right now, the Snyder's boilers are out of commission, and no decision has been made about restoring its propulsion system.

Jack Deck, the engineer who studied the boat's condition for the restoration, reported that a great deal of the original equipment—including its two 750-hp compound steam engines—would require inspection and repair rather than replacement. Diesel boilers could be brought in and then concealed in the coal structures to preserve the appearance of the boat.

Smith pointed out that the arrangement would also permit a conversion back to the original coal firing, if that ever became desirable for historical research.