Sewickley Herald

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Th
e Herald
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The Sewickley Valley's Home-News Weekly
Vol. XXV, No. 24.
SEWICKLEY, PA., FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 1928
Price 5 Gents.
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The fine new boat lo be built for the Pittsburgh-Cincinnati line
NEW STEAMBOAT
Plea for Wharf Here Expressed aa
Packet Line Expands
Plans antl specifications wero completed Friday by Captain Tliomas Dunbar, steamboat designer and builder,
for tho packet Ohio Valley for the
Pittsburgli and Cincinnati Packet Lino.
Oaptain Dunbar gained his exporienco
in_ ship-btiilding in the old iRoscburg
shipyards Which wero located between
Sowickley and Quaker Valley.
- Oaptain Fred Way, Jr., of Glen Mitch-
oil road, Gflon Osborno, president of tho
Packet Company, stated that the now
boat would bo used for Mardi Gras
trips and iSaster trips to the south and„
assist tlio Betsy Aim and the General
Wood in tho Pittsburgh-Cincinnati trado
the rest of tho year. Oaptain Way expressed tho growing need of a wharf at
the foot of Walnut street as thoir packet lino has had soveral oilers of tonnage from tho Graham Bolt and Nut
Company of Novillo Island, the Standard Stool Spring Company of Coraopolis, and tho new plant of tho Rusj
soil, Burdsall and Ward Company at
tho other end of the bridgo. All those
companies Would ship a groat deal of
freight by rivor if thero woro any suit-
abio landing place nearby, and tlie channel is on this side of tlio rivor, so tho
wharf should bo located on this side.
As it is now, Sowickloy is cut off en
tirely from tlio rivor traffic because of
a lack of suitable landing facilities.
Tho Ohio Valley will bo tlio largest
boat on tho river, Laving a capacity for
450 tons of freight and comfortable
quarters for 120 .passengers. Tho length
oil deck will bo 210 foet, the over-all
loilgth, 284 feet, with an overall beam
of 46 foet, drawing throe feet light,
Tho extremely' shallow draft of theso
rivor boats is ono factor whicli spoiled
success or failure -i!or tlieir trips in
times of low water. One timo a pilot
camo into port a fow minutes lato and
explained tho delay by stating that ho
had to stop to lot a liorso and buggy
cross in front of him a few miles down
the rivor.    N*ow  that tho pormanont
dams aro being so rapidly constructed,
the shallow draft will not bo so absolutely necessary.
During the first days of steamers, tho
rooms, instead of being numbored, wero
named aftor tho states, so thoy became
known as staterooms. About tho timo
Texas was brought into tho Union, there
Was an upper dock added to tho steamers so this new deck was called a Texas
dock. The Ohio Valloy will have forty
staterooms on tho lower dock provided
With hot and cold running wator. On
tho Texas dock thero Will bo ten special staterooms furnished luxuriously.
The Mardi Gras trip in "February is
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