Boatnerd Discussion Forum

Hey, I think I caught that fish once. He broke my pole in half and swam away.

-B in B

Yes, little by little the pieces of the barge 45 puzzle are coming together for me. Thank you guest for sharing your knowlege.

I probably shouldn’t write this because I know this was no joke at the time but seriously.a converted houseboat with I/O outboards pulling such a large barge, a skipper clueless about the ship canal and riding the rapids under the Peace Bridge.there should have been banjo music in the background during all this. The only thing that would have made this event even more priceless would be if instead of a Ford Bronco the barge was carrying an El Camino, a “monster” truck, or a trailer home. I can understand now why, as was written at the conclusion of that dive video, so many finer details of this incident are unavailable. Truly an embarrassment to those involved (the sole exception being the barge salvage crew).

Please forgive me if I’ve offended anyone. It’s just that the more I learn of this, the more exasperated I become.

Seriously though, next time I’m in the area I too will attempt to dive this wreck. I’ll inquire with local dive shops and see who’ll make this excursion. I was under the impression from that youtube video and from all written accounts that the Ruth B sank much closer to the Peace Bridge than it actually did. Ontario Street boat launch is quite a distance from the bridge. It was indeed very fortunate there were few, if any, pleasure craft on the river that day.

Thanks again to all.

You are getting to the bottom of it. I had a hard time finding info on it as well. The Barge had railroad ties and a Ford Bronco aboard.

As for The Ruth B, I would say it was more of a houseboat than a tug. It looks to have two V8 gas engines, there are plug wires and a carb. I have talked to other divers who visited the wreck just after the sinking, and it had I/0 outdrives, which were salvaged soon after. The wreck is about 40 feet long, and is just north of the Ontario street boat launch. Weather and conditions permitting, I would like to dive it and shoot some fresh video on the Aug 7. 25th anniversary of it's sinking. This video was shot several years ago
[YouTube]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7giOGmlbJbU[/YouTube]

Ian,

I forgot to mention in my post that empty, the draft of the barge was around 3 foot. When we had them loaded with cranes and construction equipment, even scrap, we never drew more than 6 foot. One time I did see #48 loaded to 8.5 feet (1 foot of freeboard). We had the barge out on rent and the contractor had loaded it heaping with large breakwater stone. We happened to have a tow to the port it was at and it was very shocking to see it loaded so deeply. I have photos I took of it somewhere for liability reasons. The last I heard #41 was still in use as a dock face in Windsor, we sent #47 to Dean Marine in Windsor for scrap and #48 is still in use in the Detroit area.g

The Ruth B was supposedly some sort of converted house boat or something. Seems sort of strange to be towing with it.

Anyway, another X-factor was the Coast Guard refusing to help him find his way over the radio. Yeah, it was against proceedure, but in this case it would have averted disaster.

-B in B

Great information, especially that link to the salvage operation. It’s another reason I love this site so much. More than just nice boat pictures, it’s a great resource to learn.

Though this incident involving Ruth B. & barge 45 is almost 25 years old, there are still some unanswered questions about events leading up to this accident I’d like to know about.

Any legal folks out there who could direct me to jurisdictional responsibilities here? I’d like to go hunting for some testimony, and official records. Particularly interesting would be Blaha’s account.

Given that on 7 August, 1986 the weather was poor (records show it was fog, rain and thunderstorms), weather was probably a contributing factor to this accident. But one would think a professional tug captain would have mapped out his course well in advance and taken precautions. I’m no professional mariner so I hope I’m not out of line writing this. I admit I’m sort of looking at this from the perspective of a road accident.

Also, shouldn't the sinking of a working tug in 1986 be listed and classified as a shipwreck? What exactly qualifies as a shipwreck? Detailed information on Ruth B. appears non-existent, which to me is a little odd considering the amount of information available for other wrecks happening 80, 90, even 100 years ago.

Bad weather that day may have saved some lives on the Niagara as there were probably few if any pleasure boats near the Peace Bridge that summer day. Amazing to me also is Blaha’s surviving this.

I'm thinking of a Canonie oil barge recovered by 3 small tugs out of Buffalo. Tug company had some kind of Indian name.

This barge (No. 45) was a sister barge to 3 barges that we used to own (41, 47 and 48) They were 175 x 40 x 9. The 3 barges we had all had concrete decks that were added at some point. These barges were heavily built, riveted hull barges. They were built in the 1930's for the US Army. There was another barge of this class on Lake Michigan as well, but I lost track of it in the mid 1990's.

Yes, the barge got stuck on the bridge in Buffalo and it had to be left until better weather. I remember it raised the level of Lake Erie by 2" to 3".

That was the Finnish tanker Kiisla, she was carrying Xylene, they lost sight of the breakwalls due to a white out snow storm and grounded on the Bird Island Pier, just off the Erie Basin. December 29th, 1989.

-B in B

There was also another incident in the mid-80's where an oil barge nearly went down the river, but fetched up on a reef above the Peace bridge.

Mr Link - Very interesting (and Long) read! Thanks for the link

Here is a 211 page (8 Mb PDF) report on the salvage operation. Looks like Donjon Marine did the work under contract to the US Navy, with lots of assistance from the USACE.


http://www.essmnavy.net/Barge%2045%20Sa ... _86%29.pdf

It happened allright and it was a major effort to remove it. I can't think of a location to find info on it however. The Corp of Engineers, Buffalo District was involved in the removal. After the barge was removed, the Gatelifter Paul Bunyan was brought from the Soo and used to set it on the beach in Lackawanna, near the old Bethelem steel mill, where it was dismantled. I have a nice picture of it. If I can find, it I'll post it.

Hello. Any truth to a rumor I heard over gin last night about a barge hung up on the Peace Bridge in Buffalo in the mid 1980's? Are there any news archive photos of this?

I'm no expert but I thought that excluding the Black Rock ship canal, the river under the bridge where Erie squeezes into Niagara R. is relatively shallow. Doesn't a barge need about 8 or 9 feet depth?