G W McBride
February 22, 1942
Condensed from an article by Jim Reis published in Pieces of the Past Volumne 3, pages 101-103 and reprinted here with his permission.
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. It was originally named the
Conqueror and had capsized on the Ohio River near
Sciotoville, Ohio in 1927. No lives were lost. It was purchased by
the Ohio River Company and renamed the G W McBride.
Early on the morning of February 22, the towboat had stopped at Coal Haven, a docking area along the Ohio River east of the railroad overpass on Kentucky 8 in Dayton. One of the hands Robert Lowe of Huntington, was assigned to wait in the dark, cold morning on shore to guard the barges until someone from the docking facility arrived. The McBride continued down river toward Newport with the rest of its barges.
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.
At 5:30 am R W Hineman, an apprentice engineer was seated at the boat's breakfast table talking with Captain Peter Lallance of Ashland and Kenneth Peck of Henderson, W Va. the chief engineer. "We heard three short takes for the whistle. The captain said something must be wrong and he yelled to get the boys out." Hineman said afterward. "The captain and Peck ran out the door to the right. I started to follow them, just then I noticed the boat was falling on that side. I turned and ran out a door to the left. That was the last time I saw Captain Lallance and Peck."
The pilot gave one long blast on the whistle and at the same moment, the McBride crashed into the bridge pier. Within five seconds, the towboat was sinking. Officials speculated the 45 year old wooden towboat sank so fast because it struck the pier almost dead center, splitting the boat almost in half. Many of the 22 crew members, including three women were still asleep in the decks below.
Almost immediately several boats from shore headed toward the wreckage to pick up survivors. The Peace headed downstream to corral the barges knocked loose. William Pierman, harbor man at the Southern Ohio Yacht Club, at the foot of Monmouth Street in Newport, pulled five crew members from the water alive: Hineman, George Harrison, George Woomer, John Wesley Cain and Earnest Easter.
There were reports of other voices calling from the fog-covered river and Newport police officers Morris Hodesh and Willard Malden borrowed a cabin cruiser and patrolled the water, but no one was found. The five rescued from the river were taken to Speers Hospital in Dayton, but only Harrison, a deck hand whose foot was cut, required any medical attention.
The river current was too swift for divers to check for bodies on the towboat, but by February 24, the river had dropped five feet and a memorial service was held at the site. On February 25 the salvage efforts began. Among the first bodies found were two of the three women on board. One was a maid, the other a cook. In two days four more bodies were recovered including the other woman, a cook. A fifth body was found March 23. A deckhand's body washed ashore in Lawrenceburg, Indiana. Others were found near Rising Run, Indiana, near the Anderson Ferry in Boone County and along the shore in Ludlow, Bromley and Cincinnati.
Those crew members who died in the accident were:
Captain Peter Lallance
Pilot Roy Edgington
Mate-James Crum
Watchman-Clarence James
Firemen-Samuel Medley, Charles Medley, Hartzell Brown, James Foulks
Cooks-Jessie Foulks, Mrs. Arlie Henderson, Verna Connor
Engineer-Charles Sayre
Deckhands-Hurley Burchfield, Kenneth McLain
Boiler Deckhand-Robert Kincaid
Chief Engineer-Kenneth Peck