The submarine tugboat

Remember the story of the towboat that got sucked under the bridge? It’s making the rounds again. I got two more emails just today pointing me at it. It is a great set of pictures. Since the pictures have been going around and around, I decided that there must be a good explanation of the whole story out there somewhere. I went Googling for a few minutes and was not disappointed. Here’s a great page explaining the whole sordid tale of the Motor Vessel Cahaba and its unhappy encounter with the Old Demopolis Bridge on April 28th, 1979. As related by Capt. Michael L. Smith: “Notice the picture where the boat is not quite righted and you can see water pouring out of the wheelhouse door. The chair washes out, and Jimmie told me he was holding on to the controls with all his might to keep from going out the drain and into the river.”