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Nautical Trivia
How Greenville, MS became known as the "Towboat Capital of the World".
Shortly after the end of the Civil War, the burgeoning railroad companies began buying up all the steamboat companies and shutting them down in an effort to eliminate competition in the transportation of bulk goods in America. The movement of large quantities of materials on the Mississippi and her tributary rivers came virtually to a standstill, as the railroad industry grew even larger and more powerful, politically and structurally. The huge and oftentimes very ornate steamboats ceased to travel the Mississippi, Arkansas, Tennessee, Ohio, Allegheny and Missouri rivers.
 As WWI came to an end, it was realized that the immense need to move bulk goods in large quantities during national emergencies could not be met by the railroad industry currently in existence. However, no private concerns were willing to take the risk and try to restart the river transportation business. The Mississippi River was a virtual wilderness area with shifting sandbars and flood and drought cycles changing the course and depth every year. The Inland Waterways Corporation was established by the Transportation Act of 1920 to build and own boats and barges in order to move cargo on the Mississippi River and its tributaries. Major General T.Q. Ashburn, head of the IWC, stated, "By 1890, common water carriage, as it formerly existed on the Mississippi River, had disappeared. It's revival began in 1920 and by 1926 more freight was transported upon the Mississippi River than ever before in history." From the Inland Waterways Corporation came the Federal Barge Line.
Following the Great Flood of 1927, and because the Mississippi and its tributaries drain 41 percent of the land mass of the continental United States, covering 31 states, Congress passed the most comprehensive flood control legislation ever. The Flood Control Act of 1928 authorized the Mississippi River and Tributaries Project, a major flood control and navigation act. The four major elements of the act were building and maintaining a levee system, building floodways for excess run-off, establishing channel improvements and stabilization and finally developing tributary basin improvements. This act effectively turned the responsibility of the Mississippi River over to the Corps of Engineers. It was on several Corps boats on the Lower Mississippi around Vicksburg that three young men were working during the Depression.
Having worked with his brothers and cousins on their grandfather's packet boat on the lower Yazoo and Sunflower rivers, eighteen year old Jesse Brent went to work for the Corps for two dollars a day. He soon worked his way up to pilot on a workboat. Percy Lemay was also a boat pilot and Gilder McCool was a dredge captain. When they decided to start a towing company, Gilder McCool's father, a cotton planter around Lake Washington, agreed to finance the young and energetic river men with a capital infusion of $3,000. In 1941, Greenville Towing Company was formed with the little wooden hulled boat named the Gilder Fay and a one-year contract to haul gasoline for the Goyer Company of Greenville. From that point on, the history of Mississippi River transportation was forever changed.
For the paltry sum of $800, a small boat was acquired and rebuilt. Greenville Towing began working for the Goyer Company hauling gas and diesel from Galveston, Texas to Greenville, Mississippi. There were no sleeping quarters on the boat and the crew slept in tents erected on the oil barge that belonged to Goyer. During construction of the boat, a credit application had to be filled out in order to finance the engines and reduction gears. The zealous salesman, realizing a problem with the collateral value for such a loan, added a zero to the value of the $800 hull making it $8,000 and the loan was approved. Years later, Captain Jesse Brent realized what had happened and declared, "If it had not been for that salesman anxious to make a sale, I don't know if I ever would have gotten into the towing business." In 1948, the steel hulled towboats Totty McCool and Ruth Brent were added to the fleet.
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Port of Greenville, MS |
Boats and barges were built on the protected side of the levee and before completion were drug over the top and slipped into Lake Ferguson. It was during this time of expansion and trial and error that several of the original entrepreneurs branched out on their own to form competing companies. The Greenville towing concerns became well known for helping others join in the business by offering engineering and launching logistics to newcomers. Anxious to go out on his own and provide a place for his two sons, Jesse Brent formed Brent Towing in 1956 with one of the original boats called the Betty Brent and two gasoline barges. He had acquired a contract from Cities Service to deliver fuel from Lake Charles, Louisiana, to Vicksburg, Memphis and Nashville. Two box barges were added to make a four-unit tow. Jesse Brent's sons Lea and Howard grew up on the river and were both pilots. Lea went to Mississippi State to become a mechanical engineer and the firm began building its own boats and barges as the operation grew. Howard stayed on the river as a boat captain before coming ashore and into the office. In 1965, a major contract was signed with Mobil Oil to build an anhydrous ammonia barge and three all aluminum tank barges. The second Ruth Brent was built in 1966. The Mobil Oil deal was a long-term contract haul and the one contract that catapulted the Brent name into towboating history. At that time the firm owned seven barges and eight boats.
Over the next 15 years, several other Brent entities were formed to complement the towing company. Brent Marine Supply was incorporated to supply the rapidly expanding Brent fleet and to take advantage of better prices for parts and equipment. Brent Shipbuilding and Repair had several dry-docks on Lake Ferguson, refurbishing, rebuilding and repairing the Brent fleet and others. Superior Boat Works was acquired and brought into the Brent family of companies. By 1980, Brent Towing Company owned 60 tank barges and 24 towboats, becoming one of the largest privately owned towing companies on the Mississippi River. Jesse Brent died in 1982 at the age of 70. Howard and Lea Brent continued operating all companies until 1989 when they sold Brent Towing Company to Dixie Carriers.
Meanwhile, up and down Lake Ferguson, boats and barges were being built and new operations started to service the rapidly expanding inland waterways business. The east bank of Lake Ferguson, where the offices and shipyards of the growing towing industry were located, was known up and down the river as the Million Dollar Mile. At one time there were 35 towboat and barge companies operating out of Greenville. And in Washington D.C., Greenville, Mississippi, was known as the Towboat Capital of the World.
By Hank Burdine, originally published in Delta Magazine, MAY/JUN 2011.
Sent in by Pat Smith, Recon Marine. |
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