The Sam Craig, A Favorite Of Capt. Bert Shearer

Attending the Inland Marine Expo in Nashville, Tenn., recently, one of the highlights of the event was visiting with old friends. One of the first we ran into was marine architect Ed Shearer. While he has designed some of the most modern towboats on the rivers today, whenever we are together our conversation usually turns to some of the boats owned in past years by his family and their company, O.F. Shearer & Sons River Transportation. It was certainly no different this time.

Capt. Charles T. Campbell and others had founded Union Barge Line (UBL) in 1923 with the wood hulled sternwheel steamer Reliance, which had formerly been the Hecla. In 1928 construction began on three new steam towboats built for Union by Midland Barge Company, Midland, Pa. These boats had steel hulls that were 151 by 34 feet and had condensing engines 15’s, 30’s – 7-foot stroke rated at 750 hp. There were four-return flue boilers installed that were coal-fired. The sternwheel was 19 feet, 4 inches diameter and 23 feet wide, working 13 buckets with a 40-inch dip. These boats were christened C.W. Talbot, J.D. Ayers and Sam Craig. The Craig is the one on which this column will focus.

The C.W. Talbot was named in honor of Campbell’s grandfather, and the J.D. Ayers was named for an officer of the Bank of Pittsburgh. Sam Craig had been the head of Midland Barge Company until his tragic death in an airplane crash in 1928. The boats were completed at Hays, Pa., where UBL had a landing. By the time these boats came out, Campbell had sold his interest in UBL to Dravo Corporation (which would buy out the other stockholders by 1932). These boats, along with the Reliance and 27 new hopper barges, formed the nucleus of what would come to be known as “The Great White Fleet” due to the impeccable appearance of the UBL boats. The Reliance had been among the pioneering towboats engaged in the movement of gasoline by barge on the upper Ohio and Monongahela rivers, and that continued under the new ownership.

UBL took great pride in their towboats and the crews that worked aboard them. Ads routinely appeared weekly in The Waterways Journal, most often located on the inside back cover that listed the boats of the company and sometimes a photo of a crew member. The three sister boats, having entered service in 1929, the same year that the canalization of the Ohio River was complete, ran the length of the Ohio in the barge line trade and later extended their trips as far south as Memphis. Photos of the period over the next two decades show the Sam Craig with various cargoes in tow, including specialty barges loaded with automobiles.

By the mid-1930s, Dravo was experimenting with diesel power in a big way. In 1934 and 35 they added the 750 hp. twin-screw diesel boats Peace and Neville to the UBL fleet, followed in 1940 by the 1,300 hp. twin-prop Wm. Penn. The war years saw nearly all new construction concentrated on the war effort. Most likely due to the war, the wood-hull Reliance was rebuilt in 1942 and kept in service until 1947. Way’s Steam Towboat Directory lists several masters of the Sam Craig throughout the UBL ownership, beginning with Capt. John L. Kerr (who had given Charles T. Campbell his first job on the river). Others were Capts. Albert Carroll, Moten Stanley, Raymond Chambers and Homer Payton.

In 1948, UBL sold the Craig to O.F. Shearer & Sons, Cincinnati. Shearer was a family-owned concern that had its origins on the Kentucky River with Capt. O.F. Shearer (WJ, August 22, 2022) operating small gas and diesel sternwheelers on that stream. His family lived aboard one of the towboats, and as his sons were still very young, they were working and actually piloting the small boats. The company had expanded to the point that it owned several sizable diesel boats and the steamer O.F. Shearer by the time they acquired the Sam Craig. Though the main office of the firm was located in Cincinnati, the main landing was at Cedar Grove, W.Va., on the Kanawha, and coal was towed from that stream to points south on the Ohio. Capt. Bert Shearer, the second of the Shearer sons (born aboard a boat on the Kentucky River in 1910) was often master of the Craig.

The late Capt. Lewis A. “Ed” Harris, of Buffalo, W.Va. was a deckhand and mate aboard the Craig in the late 50s and has related to this writer how he was aboard it in 1957 when they were backing out to head downbound with a loaded tow on the Kanawha when the boat suffered a mechanical failure. Since the new 2,800 hp. diesel Lelia C. Shearer was nearing completion at Hillman Barge & Construction at Brownsville, Pa. the decision was made  not to repair the Craig. It was later towed to the Portsmouth Docking Company, Portsmouth, Ohio, where it was dismantled. The hull made its way back to the Kanawha and sank near Black Betsy, W.Va., along the right bank at approximately Mile 37.5. One corner was visible against the bank for years and may still be there. The pilothouse sat on a landing barge at McGinnis South Point for some years.

Visiting with Capt. Bert Shearer when he was in his early 90s, I had the opportunity to ask him of the many towboats that he had worked on, which had been his favorite. He thought a moment and answered, “Well, David, the Oliver (Oliver C. Shearer, a 4,400 hp. towboat built for them in 1961) had a lot of power, and that was nice. But I sure did like that old Sam Craig!”

Caption for top photo: The Str. Sam Craig in UBL service. (UBL photo from David Smith collection)