Engineering:Sprague (towboat)
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| History | |
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 United States
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| Name: | Sprague |
| Builder: | Peter Sprague |
| In service: | 1902 |
| Out of service: | 1948 |
| Nickname(s): | Big Mama |
| Fate: | Destroyed by fire, 15 April 1974 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | Towboat |
| Length: | 276 ft (84 m) |
| Beam: | 61 ft (19 m) |
| Draft: | 7.4 ft (2.3 m) |
| Installed power: | 2,079 hp (1,550 kW) |
| Propulsion: | coal-fired steam |
Sprague, built at Dubuque, Iowa's Iowa Iron Works in 1901 by Captain Peter Sprague for the Monongahela River Consolidated Coal and Coke Company, was the world's largest steam powered sternwheeler towboat.[1] She was nicknamed Big Mama,[2] and was capable of pushing 56 coal barges at once. In 1907, Sprague set a world's all-time record for towing: 60 barges of coal, weighing 67,307 tons, covering an area of 6 1⁄2 acres, and measuring 925 feet (282 m) by 312 feet (95 m).[3] She was decommissioned as a towboat in 1948.
Legacy
After decommissioning, Sprague became a museum on the Vicksburg, Mississippi, waterfront. For many years the long-running melodrama Gold in the Hills was performed there. The boat burned in Vicksburg on 15 April 1974,[4] and as of 2019, pieces still remain in Vicksburg, Mississippi.[5]
A model of Sprague is in the National Mississippi River Museum & Aquarium in Dubuque, Iowa. The model was made in 1908 by Elizabeth Marine Ways a steamboat yard in Elizabeth, Pennsylvania, and was put on show at the Pittsburgh Exposition of 1908.[6] Another model of Sprague can be found in the Portland Museum in the Portland neighborhood of Louisville, KY.[7]
The Friends of the Sprague organization sponsored a mural entitled The Big Mama of the Mississippi as one of the Vicksburg Riverfront Murals. It was dedicated on 23 March 2007.[8]
References
- ↑ "The Builders". Features & Exhibits. National Mississippi River Museum & Aquarium. http://www.mississippirivermuseum.com/features_halloffame_detail.cfm?memberID=31/.
- ↑ "Big Mama". Pennsylvania Jack. http://www.pajack.com/stories/pitts/bigmama.html.
- ↑ "Steamboat Navigation". Mississippi River Navigation. United States Army Corps of Engineers. http://www.mvn.usace.army.mil/PAO/history/MISSRNAV/steamboat.asp.
- ↑ "A Mississippi Sidewheeler Is Burned at Her Moorings". The New York Times. 17 April 1974. https://www.nytimes.com/1974/04/17/archives/a-mississippi-sidewheeler-is-burned-at-her-moorings.html?sq=towboat%2520Sprague&scp=1&st=cse. (Subscription content?)
- ↑ "Remains of the SPRAGUE". Steamboats.org. http://www.steamboats.org/traveller/lower-mississippi-river/vicksburg.html.
- ↑ Mohney, Jay. W.. "Steamboat Building in Elizabeth, PA". http://www.elizabethmarineways.com/index.htm.
- ↑ "Home" (in en-US). http://www.goportland.org.
- ↑ "Vicksburg Riverfront Mural "The Big Mama of the Mississippi"". http://www.riverfrontmurals.com/sprague.htm.
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