1942 — Feb 22, towboat G. W. McBride hits bridge pier, sinks, Ohio R., Cincinnati OH–16
Compiled by Wayne Blanchard; last edit 7-1-2024 for upload to: http://www.usdeadlyevents.com/
— 16 Charleston Daily Mail, WV. “Craft Rams Bridge Pier; 16 Drown.” 2-23-1942, 1.
— 16 Portsmouth Times, OH. “2 Here Among 16 Dead in River Crash.” 2-23-1942, 1.
— 16 Reis, Jim. “G W. McBride.” Pieces of the Past, Vol. 3, pp. 101-103.
— 16 Swift, James V. “Another Tragedy at a Bridge in Cincinnati.” Waterways Journal, 2000.
— 16 Times Recorder, Zanesville, OH. “No More Bodies in Wreck.” 3-7-1942, 1.
Narrative Information
Reis: “The towboat G W McBride was on its way from Huntington W Va. to Addyston Ohio. Rain had swollen the Ohio River to 29 feet, not flood stage, but the current was swift and swirling especially in the stretch of Ohio River along Northern Kentucky. …A heavy fog shrouded the waters and a riverman later reported hearing the McBride’s fog horn as it passed Bellevue. The first bridge the McBride had to negotiate was the L&N Bridge between Newport and Cincinnati. Ralph Kortz, first mate of the towboat Peace running beside the McBride, said the McBride never had a chance. Kortz later told newspaper reporters the pilot, Roy Edgington of Augusta, of the McBride tried to maneuver his boat and barges toward the middle of the L&N Bridge, but the current took control.” (Reis, Jim. “G W. McBride.” Pieces of the Past, Vol. 3, pp. 101-103.)
Swift: “Our story last week about the loss of the Flying Eagle on the Hannibal, Mo., railroad bridge brought to mind another tragic sinking. This was the G. W. McBride, which hit a pier of the L&N Bridge at Cincinnati at 4:30 a.m. February 22, 1942. Thanks to Don M. Bowman of Vanceburg, Ky., we have a vivid recollection of this tragedy; he sent copies of the Cincinnati Enquirer of February 23, 1942, with pictures of the survivors and graphic descriptions of the action as reporters talked to the five survivors.
“The McBride had dropped off five barges at Coal Haven before going downriver. After it struck the bridge pier, the boat started to turn over; the survivors climbed the hull hand over hand. A small boat picked them up. Saved were deckhands Ernest Easter, George Harrison and John W. Cain, and strikers R. W. Hineman and George Woomer. Sixteen of the crew did not make it: Capt. Peter O. Lallance, master; Roy Edgington, pilot; James Crum, mate; Kenneth Peck, chief engineer; Clarence James, watchman; Arlie Henders and Verna Conner, cooks; Charles Sayre, engineer; Sam Medley, Charles Medley, Hartzell Brown and James Foulk, firemen; and Hurley Burchfield, Robert Kincaid and Kenneth McClain, deckhands. Jessie Foulk, wife of James Foulk, was also lost. Henders and Conner, the cooks, were sisters….” (Swift, James V. “Another Tragedy at a Bridge in Cincinnati.” Waterways Journal, 2000.)
Newspapers
Feb 23, Associated Press: “Newport, Ky., Feb. 23 (AP) – Rivermen struggled today to recover the bodies of 16 persons from the splintered towboat G. W. McBride; smashed against a stone bridge pier in the swollen Ohio river before dawn Sunday. The partly submerged wreckage lay near midstream, pinned to the pier by treacherous currents which caused the Ohio’s worst tragedy in more than 20 years. The bridge connects Cincinnati and northern Kentucky.
“Most of the victims – believed to be 13 men and three women – were asleep in their crew bunks when the Ohio River company’s 170-foot boat crashed as it was towing four loaded coal barges and a fuel flat. ‘She went down just about as fast as it takes you to climb from the first to the second floor,’ said Ernest Easter, 37-year-old deckhand from Buena Vista, O….
“…the pilot, Capt. Roy Edginton of Augusta, Ky., was at the wheel….” (Charleston Daily Mail, WV. “Craft Rams Bridge Pier; 16 Drown.” 2-23-1942, p. 1.)
Feb 23: “Portsmouth and Pond Run men lost their lives and two from Buena Vista were rescued when the G. W, McBride, one of the best known towboats on the Ohio, crashed into a bridge pier in the Cincinnati harbor early Sunday with 16 of the crew, 13 men and three women, perishing in the swollen stream as the boat settled rapidly.
“Robert. H. Kincaid, 23…boiler-room employe, and Hartzell Brown of Pond nun, fireman, were
local men to lose their lives in the worst Ohio river tragedy in 22 years.
“Ernest Easter, 37, and George Harrison, 28, both deckhands of Buena Vista, were among the five saved in the disaster. The quintet was rescued from wreckage by Newport rivermen, who reported no other sign of life at the scene, by the stone pier of the Louisville & Nashville Railway bridge.
“The craft, owned by the Ohio River Co. of Huntington, was valued at $50,000 and left that city Friday night with a tow of nine barges of coal for delivery at Cincinnati
“The bodies of 13 men and three women were believed still to be in the 170-foot boat that swirling channel waters pinned against the upriver side of the pier near midstream, leaving only a small part above the muddy waters….
The Dead
Captain Peter Oliver Lallance, 60, of Ashland.
Captain Roy Edgington, 49, pilot, of Augusta.
James Crum, mate, of Catlettsburg.
Kenneth Peck, 45, chief engineer, of Henderson, W. Va.
Charles Sayre, 36, engineer, of Henderson.
Hurley Burchfield, 33, deckhand, of Henderson.
Clarence James, watchman, of Huntington.
Charles Medley, 42, and his brother, Sam, firemen, both of Huntington.
James Foulks, fireman, and his wife, Jessie, second cook, both of Huntington.
Mrs. Arley Henderson, 40, and…sister, Mrs. Verna Conner, 38, cooks, both of Miller, O.
Hartzel Brown, fireman, of Pond Run.
Robert Kincaid, boiler deckhand, of Portsmouth.
Kenneth McClain [or McLain], deckhand, of Concord, Ky., formerly of Portsmouth.
“Joe Haas and Bill Pierman rowed from the Southern Ohio Yacht club through the hazy darkness to the wrecked boat and saved five crewmen as they huddled together on the side of the gunwale, calling for help….
“Mr. Kincaid had been with the McBride only about two weeks. The first his wife heard of the tragedy was through a radio broadcast about noon when she heard her husband’s name mentioned in the list of those who perished….
“The McBride, approached the first of the five bridges connecting Cincinnati and northern Kentucky with four barges loaded with 1,000 tons of coal each and a fuel flat. The bridge…is in one of the most difficult stretches of the entire Ohio river to navigate, rivermen said, as the current shifts at high river stages and pushes boats toward the pier. Making ready for this run, the McBride left five loaded barges a few miles upstream.
“The McBride struck the pier broadside, Engineer Woomer said: ‘Five minutes before the crash, we received a signal to back off. The boat backed full head, stopped right quick, changed ruder and was backing full ahead again at the time she broke in two.’
“Cut loose, the four barges floated downstream. One sank, two were picked up by the Union Barge Line towboat ‘Peace’, and a third was beached.
“…investigation will be made by a coast guard captain, an FBI agent and a representative of the bureau of marine inspection, the bureau reported…
“Captain Edgington, one of six brothers, all river captains, and the son of a river pilot, was at the wheel when the craft went down, and Captain Lallance, the master, was at breakfast [at 5:30], survivors said. Mr. Hineman, an apprentice engineer, said the few men breakfasting were preparing to go on 6 a.m. duty, while most of others were asleep in their bunks. The two women cooks were working in the kitchen. ‘The first crash was rather light,’ Mr. Hineman said. ‘Then someone gave the distress whistle three blasts, and the captain said: ‘My God boys, there is something wrong! This is serious! He ran from the table. I ran through the kitchen and heard one of the women say: ‘It’s a-sinking, boys; get out if you can.’ ‘I ran to the back of the boat, discovered which side was raising, and climbed out in water up top my waist on the other side.’….” (Portsmouth Times, OH. “2 Here Among 16 Dead in River Crash.” 2-23-1942, 1.)
March 7, Times Recorder, Zanesville, OH: “Cincinnati, March 6 – (AP) Government salvage crews removed the last pieces of the wrecked towboat G. W. McBride from the Ohio river today without finding the missing bodies of 12 of the 16 victims who drowned when the boat crashed into a bridge pier Feb. 22. Bodies of three women and one man who died in the wreck were recovered from the splintered wreckage last week.” (Times Recorder, Zanesville, OH. “No More Bodies in Wreck.” 3-7-1942, 1.)
Ind. Memory Digital Collections: The “G.W. McBride” was built in 1916 at Elizabeth, Pennsylvania as the “Conqueror”. The “Conqueror” was upset in a storm and sank. She was raised, rebuilt, and named the “G.W. McBride” by Captain Birch…” (Indiana Memory Digital Collections. “Towboats.”)
Sources
Charleston Daily Mail, WV. “Craft Rams Bridge Pier; 16 Drown.” 2-23-1942, 1. Accessed at: http://newspaperarchive.com/FullPagePdfViewer.aspx?img=39686914
Indiana Memory Digital Collections. “Towboats.” Accessed 3-19-2012 at: http://cdm16066.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/search/searchterm/Towboats
Portsmouth Times, OH. “2 Here Among 16 Dead in River Crash.” 2-23-1942, 1. Accessed at: http://newspaperarchive.com/FullPagePdfViewer.aspx?img=62827167
Reis, Jim. “G W. McBride.” Pieces of the Past, Vol. 3, pp. 101-103. Accessed at: http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~kycampbe/towboatmcbride.htm
Swift, James V. “Another Tragedy at a Bridge in Cincinnati.” Waterways Journal, 2000. Accessed 3-19-2012 at: http://www.sdgs.usd.edu/pubs/Scans/WaterwaysJournal/2000-1106.pdf
Times Recorder, Zanesville, OH. “No More Bodies in Wreck.” 3-7-1942, 1. Accessed at: http://newspaperarchive.com/FullPagePdfViewer.aspx?img=7128276