Cliff Crane - Man Overboard!

 This is an abbreviated version for newspaper of an earlier post titled “Man Overboard on the Steamboat Carrie Brooks.” To see the entire article, click here.

     The steamboat CARRIE BROOKS chugged along down the icy Muskingum River one frigid winter day in the 1870's. Engineer Cliff Crane was on duty in the engine room. Near Malta-McConnelsville, Ohio, Crane stepped out on the stern to oil the bearings of the paddlewheel shaft. Spray from the paddlewheel had left a coating of solid ice. He slipped and fell overboard. A potential disaster was unfolding.

     Crane floundered in shock from the freezing water, struggling to stay afloat in his heavy clothing. The CARRIE BROOKS steamed on without slowing, unaware he was overboard. Crane began shouting frantically for help as he struggled toward shore. He wondered who could possibly hear him in the middle of January when farm fields were deserted. Miraculously, James Loughridge heard Crane and found him clinging to willows along the shore.

     Loughridge helped the shivering Crane to his house. Most people would have been relieved to be rescued and in a warm house. But Crane was babbling, panicked that his absence placed the CARRIE BROOKS in danger. Loughridge tried to calm him. Crane asked if there was a horse available. He had to catch up with his boat before it was too late.

Image of CARRIE BROOKS from a postcard. Viewed at https://historical.ha.com/itm/transportation/nautical/real-photo-postcards-nine-ohio-river-steamers-total-9-items-/a/6092-39099.s# CLICK TO ENLARGE

     Danger? Before it was too late? Crane knew his absence was a danger. As the engineer, he played a critical a role. The steamboat pilot steered but relied on the engineer in the engine room below to change speed or direction. Steamboat pilots communicated with the engine room using a system of bells. The on-duty engineer upon hearing a bell, rang back an acknowledgement to the pilot and made the changes requested. But without Crane, there was no one to slow the boat for the stop at Hooksburg, just upriver of Windsor (now Stockport). Imagine the peril of a vehicle cruising at full speed with the accelerator to the floor - and no brakes.

     The CARRIE BROOKS pilot steered around a bend in the icy river towards the dock at Hooksburg. He rang a bell to slow for docking. No answer. What? Anxiously he rang the stopping bell to stop the engines. No answer. For the first time, he realized no one was in the engine room. Heart pounding, he lunged at the pilot wheel, steering the boat out into the river to avoid the dock and yelled for another crew member to slow the boat. The CARRIE BROOKS swung slowly around, barely missing the dock.

     The crew now knew engineer Cliff Crane was missing. The boat turned back upriver to search for him. All eyes scanned the water and shorelines for hours. They found nothing. With heavy hearts, they called off the search and continued down river.

     Meanwhile, Crane was given dry clothes and a horse drawn carriage. The race was on to catch the CARRIE BROOKS at Windsor lock. The CARRIE BROOKS approached the lock. The crew saw the lock tender cranking open the lock chamber. And there was another man standing there. It was Cliff, the missing-and-presumed-dead engineer! The crew were amazed and overjoyed at seeing Cliff Crane whom they had given up for lost. 

Stockport (formerly Windsor) Lock today looking downriver. CARRIE BROOKS would have entered the area between the two walls to continue her trip after finding Cliff Crane.

     Steamboat travel could be hazardous to boats, crew, and passengers. Boiler explosions, mechanical breakdowns, damage from obstructions ("snags") in the river, and collisions were all too common. The CARRIE BROOKS once experienced mechanical failure and was damaged on the Ohio River when she struck a barge.

     But that day on the CARRIE BROOKS, it was a happy ending. Tragedy was averted. There was no damage to the boat. Like the biblical story of the prodigal son, Cliff Crane was "lost but was found."

The Little Steamboat That Could

We know Rufus Putnam as the distinguished leader of the settlement of Marietta. Rufus Putnam was also a steamboat. She (sorry, guys, but boats are referred to by the female pronoun) plied the Ohio River and later the Mississippi River starting about 1823. The Putnam was a sidewheeler steamboat, built for the Ohio River trade at Marietta by Caleb Barstow for Captain John Green and Oliver Dodge. She was small by later standards, just 75 ft by 18 ft in size.

Engine room bell from Rufus Putnam, now on display at the Ohio River Museum in Marietta, OH

Her Captain, John Green, decided to invite some friends to attempt a trip up the Muskingum River from Marietta to near Zanesville. Why not? It would be fun and historic - but risky. The Muskingum was not really navigable then. Such a trip by a steamboat had never been attempted. Capt Green chose a time of high water to assure clearance through shallow areas. But the resulting swift current could easily overwhelm the Rufus Putnam. The current also makes navigating a boat much more difficult. Some worried that the steam required to ascend the rapids could blow up the boat. Then there were snags (trees and other debris in the river) which could puncture the hull. 

No problem;  passengers seemed willing to overlook safety risks, including possible loss of life. Capt. Green's announcement of the trip attracted a crowd of passengers "quite beyond her accommodations." The Rufus Putnam pulled away from Marietta at 10:00 a.m. on Friday, January 9, 1824. General Rufus Putnam, the boat's namesake and the founder of Marietta, saw the boat off and waved "Godspeed" from his home near the Muskingum River.

The Putnam took on a few more passengers at Waterford, then had to tie up for a while at Luke Chute due to the current. There were stops along the way for wood, the vital fuel of that era for riverboats. Presumably, passengers or locals in the area procured the wood. People gathered along the way, fascinated - or even fearful - of this new sight.

The adventurous cruise reached it's destination at Putnam, Ohio, then a settlement across the Muskingum River from Zanesville. It was 10 p.m. on a dark and rainy Saturday night. One report said that the boat anchored in midstream, fearful that a large crowd would rush on board and capsize the vessel.

Capt. Green and his cruisers created a flamboyant scene. The boat was brightly lit with torches. Ladies on board paraded on the top deck in bright scotch plaid cloaks, the fashion of the day. A cannon on board fired. Area residents, unaware of the Rufus Putnam's presence, feared that Indians - or even the British - were attacking.

Torch baskets (from Ohio River Museum) of the kind that may have illuminated the Rufus Putnam. The baskets were tilted outward from the boat and pine knots or similar fuel was set ablaze.

The Putnam remained in port. Crowds flocked to see her. Captain Green made two unscheduled excursion trips to Duncan Falls. Putnam (the town) residents entertained the visitors with an oyster supper, characterized as "the acme of hospitality as oysters were 'hard to come by' in inland Ohio at the time."

On Tuesday at 11 a.m. the Putnam began the return trip to Marietta, where she tied up just seven hours later, achieving an average speed of over 10 m.p.h. That was the fastest recorded time ever recorded for that trip, due to the current and not having to transit the lock system later built on the river. 

The Rufus Putnam continued to work beyond the Muskingum River on the Ohio River between Pittsburgh and Louisville. She was purchased by Captain David Bates in 1825, who took the Putnam to the Upper Mississippi River where she was only the third steamboat to ascend the rapids to reach Prairie du Chien. The Putnam's river life ended when she snagged and sank in 1825 at Point Chicot in Lousiana, without loss of life.

Captain Green's pioneering trip encouraged further commerce along the Muskingum (an Indian name meaning "Elk Eye") River. In 1840 a lock and dam system was completed from Dresden to Marietta, the first such system on an inland river in the country. That opened the river to robust commerce and river traffic. Since the Rufus Putnam,  more than 175 steamboats reportedly plied the Muskingum until the early 20th century, when trains, trucks, and automobiles made the steamboats obsolete. Most of lock system remains operational today, though almost exclusively for recreational use.

George Washington knew of the Muskingum's navigation potential into the lands north and west of the Ohio River when he made an exploratory trip down the Ohio River in 1770. On October 25, his journal records "...we came to the Mouth of Muskingham...This river is abt 150 yds wide at the Mouth; a gentle currant and clear stream runs out of it, and is navigable a great way into the Country (italics by blog author)...."  The river was mentioned in Washington's endorsement in 1788 of the new settlement at Marietta: "No colony in America was ever settled under such favorable auspices as that (Marietta) which has just commenced at the Muskingum..."

Rufus Putnam was the pioneering leader of the historic settlement at Marietta. The Steamer Rufus Putnam was likewise a bold pioneer of steamboating on the Muskingum River.

Sources:
Quotes unless otherwise noted are from an account of A. T. Nye, Esq., a passenger on the Putnam trip, excerpts of which are reported in various of the publications listed below.

Gamble, J. Mack, Steamboats on the Muskingum, The Steamship Historical Society of America, 1971, Chapter 1, pp 1-6

The Ohio Guide, a Compilation of the Workers of the Writers Program of the Works Progress Administration, The Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society, 1940, page 544

Cleland, Hugh, George Washington in the Ohio Valley, University of Pittsburgh Press, 1955, page 257

Johnson, Winnie Smith, That's Where It All Began, Marietta, Ohio, River Press, 1988, seen as an excerpt appearing on web page http://wolfcreek.k12.oh.us/Artifacts/Where_Began/RiverHistory.htm, accessed 9/28/15.

Williams, H. Z., History of Washington County, Ohio, pages 368-80, H.Z. Williams and Bros., 1880, viewed on Archive.org, accessed 9/28/15

Riverboat Dave's web site: http://www.riverboatdaves.com/aboutboats/r-2.html, reference: Rufus Putnam (source data provided by Ernie Thode, Washington County Local Historical and Genealogy Library), accessed 9/28/15