{"id":43422,"date":"2026-10-21T15:50:00","date_gmt":"2026-10-21T19:50:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ecoportal.net\/en\/?p=43422"},"modified":"2026-10-21T15:50:00","modified_gmt":"2026-10-21T19:50:00","slug":"towboat-pushing-fifteen-barges-eased-toward","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ecoportal.net\/en\/towboat-pushing-fifteen-barges-eased-toward\/43422\/","title":{"rendered":"A towboat pushing fifteen barges eased toward an Ohio River bank to let a bigger tow pass, and it grounded on a stone jetty hidden under 19 feet of water"},"content":{"rendered":"

The river bend near Portsmouth, Ohio looks wide and open from the wheelhouse of a towboat after dark.<\/p>\n

Below the waterline, two stone fingers reach out from the bank, unseen.<\/p>\n

A towboat was pushing fifteen empty barges upriver.<\/p>\n

Coming the other way was a much bigger load.<\/p>\n

To let it pass, the captain eased toward shore.<\/p>\n

That single move ended with steel grinding against rock nobody aboard could see.<\/p>\n

Why a clear river turned into a hidden hazard<\/h2>\n

The trouble was not fog or broken equipment. It came down to a river custom, a passing arrangement, and a stretch of bank that looked like open water but was not. The river was running high that evening, and it was already dark.<\/p>\n

Two stone jetties reach about 55 feet out<\/strong> from the right descending bank, set on either side of a boat ramp and shielding marinas near the bridge from current and floating debris. When the tow passed through the two bridges, the river level was 19.2 feet at the Portsmouth gage, and the jetties sat completely out of sight<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

So the captain of the towing vessel Tom Frazier contacted the operator of the 113.3-foot-long towing vessel<\/strong> Debi Sharp, which was downbound 1.5 miles away pushing 25 barges, 19 loaded and 6 empty, to make passing arrangements. The two agreed to meet starboard to starboard, and river custom gave the downbound boat room, so the Frazier’s captain swung his tow to port, toward the bank.<\/p>\n

That track carried the tow outside the charted 9-foot-depth contour and too close to the jetties, which were submerged at the time<\/strong>. Both were marked on the electronic chart the vessel carried, visible the whole time on its screen.<\/p>\n

What fifteen barges look like from the bow<\/h2>\n

A fifteen barge tow is not a small thing to steer. Total length<\/a> that evening was 1,135 feet<\/strong>, and its width was 112 feet, a floating wall of steel that answers slowly to the rudder<\/strong> and keeps moving long after an order is given.<\/p>\n

Hopper barges riding empty draw almost nothing. The draft of the Tom Frazier was 11.2 feet, while the draft of the barges ranged from just 1.5 to 2 feet<\/strong>. So the barges rode clean over the top of the jetties while the towboat’s own deeper hull did not.<\/p>\n

That gap is why the captain never felt trouble coming until it arrived. The jetties sit about half a mile<\/strong> upriver from the U.S. Grant Bridge, in a stretch where upbound boats move over for downbound tows, which carry the current<\/strong> and the right of way.<\/p>\n

The moment the hull met the rock<\/h2>\n

Investigators with the National Transportation Safety Board later reconstructed the final minutes. As the captain tried to steer the tow back into the channel at about 4 mph, the Tom Frazier grounded on one of the jetties, damaging its hull plating, framing and bulkheads<\/strong>, and flooding several spaces including the engine room.<\/p>\n

The boat began listing to starboard. The captain radioed US Coast Guard Sector Ohio Valley that they were taking on water<\/strong> with nine people aboard.<\/p>\n

Local first responders and crews from nearby vessels evacuated the crew to shore, and the nine person crew<\/strong> got off without injury, while an estimated 5 gallons of oil spilled into the river. The agency’s conclusion pointed to the gap between what was charted and what was seen, finding the probable cause was the captain steering too close to the bank to dodge the downbound tow without recognizing the charted jetties as a hazard.<\/p>\n

Why the chart didn’t save the tow<\/h2>\n

Towboats working the inland rivers carry electronic charting systems packed with exactly this kind of detail, yet a chart only helps if someone reads it at the right second. None of that mattered once darkness and high water erased the jetties from view entirely. The investigation report<\/a> noted that, given the nighttime conditions and water level, the jetties would not have been visible at all<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

A similar gap shows up in other towboat casualty reports, including one where a routine maneuver<\/a> turned out to carry hidden risk of its own. The jetties themselves were never secret. They had sat in that spot for years, protecting the ramp and marinas long before electronic charts existed at all.<\/p>\n

What the river gives back after an accident like this<\/h2>\n

Damage to the vessel came to $258,737<\/strong>, the kind of bill that keeps a working towboat tied up for weeks rather than days. The Tom Frazier stayed aground for three days<\/strong> until rising water helped free it, then it was towed to a drydock in South Point, Ohio.<\/p>\n

Even so, the barge tow itself was handed off rather than lost. It passed to the towing vessel Marty B, and because the hoppers were empty there was no cargo to spill, though the towboat’s own systems lost a small amount of oil into the river. Incidents like this happen with some regularity on America’s river system, a risk echoed in other waterway incidents<\/a> involving stranded vessels and spilled cargo<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The Ohio kept flowing past Portsmouth the same as always, muddy and wide, while salvage crews worked the Frazier free. Rivers like it still carry enormous tonnage of grain, coal and steel past towns most drivers never think about, and the jetties that caught this tow remain exactly where they have always been, just under the surface whenever the water comes up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The river bend near Portsmouth, Ohio looks wide and open from the wheelhouse of a towboat after dark. Below the waterline, two stone fingers reach out from the bank, unseen. A towboat was pushing fifteen empty barges upriver. Coming the other way was a much bigger load. To let it pass, the captain eased toward …