exciting Boat Ride:

[Orv Reichert]

Check out:


http://koti.mbnet.fi/~soldier/towboat.htm


This guy really had a BAD day!


Orv

[Kyrie]

Hi Folks!


Take a close look at these photos. The bridge (over the river, not on the boat) superstructure stays on the same upstream/downstream side as the boat. And the coal barge the tug jettisoned upstream appears â??downstreamâ?� of the bridge once the boat is â??downstreamâ?� of the bridge. I suspect someone is having fun with reversing the photo negatives ;-)


Best regards,


Kyrie

Kyrie ;

There seems to be no funny stuff here.

He must have cut free before the first frame.

He was backing down trying to get away and the tow passed under the bridge before tug arrived to impact the bridge.

Notice the pattern of the tops of the trees in frame #2.

which was taken down stream of the bridge before the collision and and appears in frames #9, #10, and so on.

Portions of the same tree line contour appears in these frames in that order.

He just had the good fortune to be upright after rolling under the bridge.

These Tugs are very stable vessels and this proves it.

With the good fortune of haveing a very powerful Guardian Angel Looking Over Him.

This is the first Submarine Tug that I've ever seen.


ViggoG

[Kyrie]

Hi Viggo,


I donâ??t know, my friend, I still have some doubts.


Even assuming the tree lines show the tug really is on two different sides of the bridge, there is still the question of how the superstructure of the traffic bridge moved from the upstream side of the bridge to the downstream side.


And looking at the height of the barge and cargo of coal versus the clearance between the bridge and the surface of the river, I donâ??t se any way the barge could have made it under the bridge without scraping off the top of the piles of coal. Which assumes the barge was lucky enough not to hit ant bridge pilings as it went under.


Iâ??ve seen enough really bizarre things happen to believe what was ostensibly shown could have happened - but I still doubt it really did :-(


Best regards,


Kyrie

Moderator - Cruffler_Forum on Yahoo Groups

"The flame free C&R Forum."

Kyrie,

"Me thinks" that art being fooled by the perspective illusion.

The bridge super structure, ie: Vertical rail or lift towers are the same width as the channel span, and or the rest of the bridge.

when viewed down either side of the bridge the distrant tower appears on the same side as the viewer and being farther away appears narrower than the foreground portion of the bridge.

Look closely at the signs on the bridge overhead they read properly from both sides of the bridge.

This shows that the negatives have not been flipped or the print on the sign would be reversed in the flipped frames.

Just my observations.

ViggoG

[MikeP]

Here is a little info on that incident from an esteemed colleague at the SF Teamhouse


Holy ****. I didn't know there were pictures of that. This may be more than

you want to know about that trick. The boat is the M/V Natchez and belongs

to Warrior & Gulf Navigation. I can't recall the captains name but we all

call him Capt. Crunch and that is not his greatest trick.The bridge is the

old Rooster Bridge on hwy 80 below Demopolis Alabama across the Tombigbee

River. The river was at flood stage and there was not clearance under the

bridge to pass the wheel house. It was common practice to push the tow under

the bridge, break the tow loose than back like hell. Another WGN boat would

catch the tow and head for Mobile. Nobody got hurt and the boat never turned

all the way over. The Capt.. told me he was not ashamed to admit he pissed

his pants. ________ and I shot that bridge in the winter of 79 or 80 so it

is no longer there. This same captain had an even more spectacular accident

not long after this happened but a deck hand was killed.


MikeP

I was wondering why the bridge was not open .

I just comes to me that when the span is lifted that the latches are open and the bridge is much weaker, not having the span member to lock the two towers togather along the strong roadway frame.

Thanks Again, It Was Very Interesting,

ViggoG