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U. S. Snagboat E. A. Woodruff

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U. S. Snagboat E. A. Woodruff 

A snag boat was steamboat with an apparatus for removing impeding debris (such as snags) from inland waters. 

From Ways Packet Directory:
"Built in 1874 and operated the length of the Ohio. She was retired in the 1920s as a wharfboat in Louisville."

U. S. Snagboat "E. A. Woodruff" was in Covington, KY on the bank at the mouth of the Licking River for the U. S. Engineer Corps. Captain W. H. Christian of Cincinnati. The iron-hulled boat was used to butt snags over, drag them out of the water with chains and also to rip and blast wrecks out of the water.

The Annual Report of the Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce, 1907 reported:

Operations by the U. S. Snagboat, E. A. Woodruff, in removing snags, wrecks, and other obstructions, were commenced April 27th, when she left Cincinnati for the upper section of the river. From this date up to December 31st, when the season's work was practically closed, the Woodruff worked over the river from Cincinnati, making four round trips to the Pennsylvania State Line, the upper limit of her district; two round trips to Wheeling, W. Va. and two round trips to the mouth of the river.

During the year the Snagboat removed obstructions as follows: 1,266 snags, aggregating 5,385 tons; 25 coal barges, 12 coal boats, 3 fuel flats, the remains of 2 steamboats, and 6 miscellaneous craft, etc.; 364 cords drift, and 12 rocks, measuring 170 cubic feet. Miles traveled, 6,745.

By 1916, the E. A. Woodruff had been removed to "southern waters" and the removal of obstructions on the Ohio River was completed between Wheeling and Pittsburgh by the government boat "Swan".
 

Newspaper Articles

Article occasionally ran in the Wheeling Daily Intelligencer listing the obstructions removed from the Ohio River by U.S. snagboat E. A.Woodruff 
▶ View the July 15, 1876 article on Chronicling America (Library of Congress newspaper database)
▶ View the September 22, 1885 article on Chronicling America
▶ View the July 23, 1896 article on Chronicling America 
▶ View the August 20, 1896 article on Chronicling America
▶ View the June 4, 1900 article on Chronicling America 
▶ View the October 31, 1900 article on Chronicling America 

Images

E.A. Woodruff

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