Josh Cook (Towboat, 1876-1918)

Summary

• BOAT DESCRIPTION: Sternwheel
• BOAT TYPE: Towboat
• BUILT: 1876, Freedom, Pennsylvania
• FINAL DISPOSITION: Cut down by ice at Joppa, Illinois on January 28, 1918
• OWNERS: 1876: Captain Thomas J. Harper and others; 1909: Barrett Line; 1912: Atlas Portland Cement Company
• OFFICERS & CREW: 1876: Captain Thomas J. Harper (master); 1912: Captain Floyd Burress (master), Jim Ferguson (pilot); 1914: Captain W.C. Colvin (pilot), Charlie O'Neal (pilot), Ed Kellogg (pilot)
• RIVERS: Ohio River; Mississippi River
• OTHER INFORMATION: Ways - T1467; This boat was named for Captain Josh Cook who lived at Port Fulton, a suburb of Jeffersonville, Indiana. Her trial runs were at Pittsburgh in October, 1876. Captain Harper was her master for 24 years. She was sold to the Barrett Line and delivered at Brown's Elevator, Cincinnati, June 11, 1909. The Atlas Portland Cement Company bought her in April 1912. In December, 1913, Captain Frank R. Farnsley was drowned when he slipped from a plank while boarding this boat. The Atlas people added a texas deck to her and did much towing to southern ports