Large and in Charge the Viking Queen pushing 4 loads and 38 empties northbound Mississippi river passing Bee Tree County Park. I could not resist flying into the smoke lol. Recorded from the deck at Bee Tree Park. I hope you all enjoy!
I was piloting The Vessel when this video was shot. She still has a little throttle left, was not hooked up. Stepped out of wheelhouse and waved at 3:01. Crew was in the middle of painting. All signs and logos were off as a result. Great Video. Good Job Bowzer.
I grew up on the Upper Mississippi river, my dad worked for the Corps of Engineers as a lockman at Genoa lock and Dam #8, then was promoted and transfered to Trempeleau lock and Dam #6 as an assistant lockmaster, back then the lockmaster and family and assistant lockmaster and family lived in 2 identacle houses on site. As a kid in the 50s and 60s, I played all around the Dam, unlike now, we weren't allowed to cross the Dam but we did occasionally with parent. It was an adventurous childhood!
I used to freelance deckhand out of the NMU hall in Joliet in the late '70s. I used to love going out to the head of the tow (t's quiet) and watch the riverbank slowly pass by. Great job
You’re exactly right bud, I feel you!! Just watching that tug slowly but surely push ALL those damn barges along is amazing to watch. Really makes me marvel at the sheer power of these tow/tug boats that do this!!
Very cool video! One of our favorite camping spots is Trail of Tears State Park on the Missouri side of the river just north of Cape Girardeau. The camp ground sits right on the river bluff so my favorite thing to do is sit and watch the barge traffic and trains go by! BNSF runs coal trains about 100yards from the campground too. Makes for a noisy weekend, but the sound of revved up 4000hp diesels is music to my ears!!
Your drone video perspectives are phenomenal. This vessel has a lot of power. Just look as the propeller wash and thrust against the river. Thanks for sharing.
The engines seem to be a full power and then some with that black smoke. I was on a ocean going tug and full power we just had a brown haze. We had 4-12 cylinder super charged diesel engines and 4 electric drive motors. Great video.😁
Nice boat. Seems like it is smoking a lot. I have been around many large engines and the never seemed to smoke that much. If that's normal for this type of engine, then I'll bet his EGT is near red line. Clearly those engines are working hard, and that's what they should be doing, working hard. Nice video!
She’s pushing hard Captain. The exhaust stacks show she’s digging in and getting it done. Your drone work is awesome……this is much more captivating than watching a push thru the pilot house windshield. Thanks for posting.
I filled in on the Viking Queen a couple of times back in the early 80's when Wisconsin Barge Line was still the owner.And 1 time after ADM bought them out.It was differant being on a bigger Dravo boat after being on smaller St.Louis Ship boats for years.My regular assigned boat was the Sierra Dawn.I was the mate on it for 8 years.
@@stevennewman8276 it’s actually both on one engine. It can be belt driven and then exhaust driven but depends on the engine model. Some just have turbos/superchargers or both depending on the use. For marine it might be both?
A flying DeLorean! When this baby hits 88mph, you're gonna see some serious sh*t! Another great video Bowzer. Loved it. Have yourself a very nice day sir. You deserve it!!!
My two favorite river jobs were working in the Memphis harbor doing fleetwork & working for Economy Boat Store refueling & resupplying passing towboats.
Love watching these boats, wish I was out there, I did do some commercial fishing out of Dutch Harbor for a short time, to old now but I sure miss the boats.
That’s unbelievable and the power it must have, how do they tie them together and where would they start from? I’m in Australia and have never seen anything like that, great video and the captain must be a legend.
Just discovered your channel What app or website do you use to identify what boats are on the Mississippi river? We are at Tom Sawyer’s rv resort West Memphis. Thanks Jerry
Loaded those barges could carry about 63000 tons at the 1500/barge maximum. Almost as much as some of the 1000 footer ships on the great lakes. Some of those go over 80000 tons.
That speeding boat could have been my old Allison bass boat that would run around 90 mph, it had a 265 HP Evinrude Super Stock engine on a boat rated for a 115HP. You knew that you were in grave danger wide open.
Wow , your video footage is good but the subject you picked makes it even more so ! That is a lot to haul , especially up river ! Try doing that with batteries . Lol
I ask you green deck hands have you finely found those 5 gallons of wheel wash. It took a whole first day on the job before the Capt. finally told me. ( Green deck hand joke). I loved it. I e be en pranked new deck hands. Big laugh.🤪wuz up.
I delivered planes from Europe to the USA. We’d arrive in Maine and fly them to Texas. On the clear days I could clearly see these huge barges on the river. Wow
I was a deck hand for national marine fron April 1990 to 1994. I've never seen 42 in tow. This is awesome. I enjoyed being a deck hand.After my 3rd. I worked with 3 different CAPTAINS AND GOT WHEEL TIME FRON EACH ONE . I PILOTED THE MOBILE RIVER FROM THE CITY OF MOBILE TO BERRY STEAM PLANT TO DEMOPOLIS ALABAMA. ALSO GOT TIME FROM MOBILE TO PASCAGOULA MISS. EVEN PILOTED TO THE DOCKS OF PENSACOLA FLA. I TELL YOU IF YOU MID 20 Y.O.s COULD EXPERIENCE DECKING MAN YOU WOULD FALL IN LOVE WITH DECKING. THE MONEY IS AWSOME. TRY IT OUT GUYS .
I routinely kayak the Missouri River from KC to STL and I’ve always wondered two things: is there any place online I can go to see real time barge operations? You can’t really tell from the footage but those things really churn up the water. Makes for a pretty bumpy ride for about a mile down river. Other question is whether their radar can pick up returns as small as a kayaker at night? I always run with USCG approved bow and stern lights, but they can’t look much more than little red, green and white points of light at night. Every time I get within 500-600 yards of one of these operations at night, it seems like they instantly know where I’m at and shine their trillion candlepower spotlight on me lol, which I’m very grateful for. They have to have a pretty fine radar on board that can pick up a paddler in a 15’ kayak.
Yes the radars on a towboat when adjusted properly will pick up targets smaller than a navigation buoy. It's great that you use lights. It's also important to when possible stay out of the navigational channels. Towboat this size probably drafts 12 or 13 feet restricting the ability to run in less than 15 to 18 feet of water.
Depends on what we have in tow if we have cover tops it will create a sort of blind spot on our radar out about 200-300ft infront of tow he’s thing I can recommend is use your nav lights stay out of channel as much as possible and carry a handheld radio! Always keep it on traffic an you will hear all boats calling north/soutbound and Remember always make sure they know where your at it takes a while to pump the brakes to these especially they have a full tow! Safe travels to you friend
If possible,you might want to rig a radar reflector to increase the target that they see. It's easier for you to get out of their way but you might not have time.
I can't imagine, my boat is half this size and we push three barges at the most and burn about 1,100 gallons of diesel a day with 3,000 hp. Our fuel capacity is 21,000 gallons. Would be interesting to know the specs for this vessel.
Towboat muito poderoso incrível muitas barcaças ea inda consegui correr nossa este vídeo foi perfeito Bowzer gosto de ver towboat com muitas barcaças amei
I use boat beacon with an AIS receiver and antenna. I do not rely on cell phone signal and not up to date information. I can receive out as far as 20 miles depending on terrain.
We enjoy flashing the river boats at night from the river banks with not only our high powered flashlights but our trucks with light bars just to mess with them. We always hope they’ll shine us with their big light lol!!! What do y’all think of people like us? 😂
This boat burns over ten thousand five hundred gallons of fuel per day when it is run at full throttle. The estimates for fuel burn used to be one gallon of fuel per horsepower per day, but some of the newer boats seem to burn more. Topping off the fuel tanks with diesel usually costs over two hundred thousand dollars.
