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Sprague, built at Dubuque, Iowa's Iowa Iron Works in 1901 by Captain Peter Sprague for the Monongahela River Consolidated Coal and Coke Company, was the world's largest steam powered sternwheeler towboat. She was nicknamed Big Mama, and was capable of pushing 56 coal barges at once. In 1907, Sprague set a world's all-time record for towing: 60 barges of coal, weighing 67,307 tons, covering an area of 6+1⁄2 acres, and measuring 925 feet (282 m) by 312 feet (95 m). She was decommissioned as a towboat in 1948.
References
- ↑ "Death of Pioneer Coal Man Sunday". Daily Republican, Monongahela, Pennsylvania. 18 March 1912. Retrieved January 24, 2010.
- ↑ "Coal Combine Effected" (PDF). New York Times . 1 October 1899.
- ↑ Parker, Arthur (1999). The Monongahela : river of dreams, river of sweat. University Park, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State University Press. pp. 85–87. ISBN 978-0-271-01875-1. OCLC 246187224.
- ↑ "Trade Agreement Abrogated" (PDF). New York Times . 29 July 1902. Retrieved 24 January 2010.
- ↑ Goodsell, Charles M. Henry E. Wallace; Wallace, Henry E., eds. (1920). The manual of statistics; stock exchange hand-book . Vol. 42. New York. p. 383. OCLC 39940423.
- ↑ Virtual Museum of Coal Mining in Western Pennsylvania
- ↑ "Pennsylvania Jack (Big Mama)" . Retrieved 24 January 2010.