Iowa (Towboat, 1921-1954)

Summary

• BOAT DESCRIPTION: Sternwheel, converted to screw propeller in 1937
• BOAT TYPE: Towboat
• BUILT: Stillwater, Minnesota 1921
• FINAL DISPOSITION: Dismantled in 1954
• OWNERS: Inland Waterways Corporation; Federal Barge Line (1953)
• OFFICERS & CREW: Sometime prior to 1926: Captain W. C. "Chess" Wilcox (master), Eugene Hampton and Thomas Martin (pilots); April 1937: Captain R. R. Zang (master), F. A. Hill and R. A. Harris (pilots), George L. Watts (chief engineer), F. A. Netherland (second engineer), W. P. Smith (mate); Captain William Davis
• RIVERS: Mississippi River; Ohio River
• OTHER INFORMATION: Ways - T1190; Built at Stillwater, Minnesota in 1921, duplicate of E. F. Goltra's design for towing on the upper Mississippi. Originally built as a sternwheel, with a low paddle wheel of unusual size, 24 feet in diameter and 38 feet long; converted to a twin propeller at New Orleans in 1937. Circa 1926 she made a trip to the upper Ohio, terminating at Lock 2, Neville Island, Pennsylvania in April-May 1926. On this trip she towed four new steel barges loaded with coal to Granite City, Illinois for the Ohio River Company. She was converted to a twin prop in 1937 and came out in April 1937, with Captain R. R. Zang, master. She was owned by Inland Waterways Corporation of St. Louis, Missouri, until transferred to Federal Barge Lines in 1953; she was dismantled in 1954
• PHOTO DESCRIPTION: In ice