Reliance (Towboat, 1924-1947)

Summary

• BOAT DESCRIPTION: Sternwheel
• BOAT TYPE: Towboat
• BUILT: 1916 at Elizabeth, Pennsylvania
• FORMERLY: Active; Hecla
• FINAL DISPOSITION: Sank in the Allegheny River on March 14, 1947
• OWNERS: Union Barge Line; Charles Zubik (1946)
• OFFICERS & CREW: Captain John G. Britton (master, 1924-1932); Captain Albert Gilmore (master, 1932-1937); Captain Rube Brown, Sr. (master, 1937); Captain Walter C. Booth (master, circa 1940-1947); A.A. "Gus" Butler (chief engineer)
• RIVERS: Ohio River; Kanawha River; Monongahela River; Allegheny River
• OTHER INFORMATION: Ways - T2135; Used by the Union Barge Line exclusively under contract for Standard Oil of New Jersey towing gasoline barges on the upper Ohio, Kanawha, Monongahela and Allegheny rivers. In the fall of 1925 she sank in the mouth of the Little Kanawha River at Parkersburg, West Virginia; the Western took her place. In March 1927, the Reliance began towing to Fairmont, West Virginia at the headwaters of the Monongahela River. She continued with this until 1945 or 1946 and was the last steamboat to appear there. She was trouble-free for most of her career, although in August 1925 two of her barges of gasoline exploded and burned at Huntington, West Virginia. Later (in the 1940s) another barge fire occurred but was extinguished. In 1942 she was completely rebuilt at Paducah, Kentucky. During World War II she towed from Mount Vernon, Indiana to Midland, Pennsylvania