betty_kelly9•26d agoTop Commenter

That one old-timer on the Mississippi who saved my rookie butt

I was running a cutterhead near Baton Rouge back in June and hit a snag that wrapped the ladder something fierce. This grizzled operator named Walt pulled up on his johnboat and showed me how to clear it with a torch and a come-along in like 20 minutes. Has anyone else learned more from random encounters on the water than from any training manual?

3 comments

3 Comments

charles_mitchell25d ago

Sandra nailed it with that high-pressure hose trick, I've used that exact method on a clogged suction line near Natchez. The key is dropping the pressure slow like Pearl said, if you kill it too fast you'll just pack the debris tighter. Another move I picked up from an old timer is keeping a few lengths of chain in the toolbox for when a cutterhead gets wrapped with cable or wire rope. Wrap it around the snag and give it a sharp pull with the winch, it'll cut through stuff you can't get a torch on. These river folks have been solving problems with what's laying around for decades, and their shortcuts are gold. I write those tips down in a waterproof notebook now, too many good ones slip away if you don't.

sandra_bennett5926d ago

Buddy of mine, Mark, was running a dredge near Vicksburg and his discharge pipe got clogged with a mess of old fishing nets and tires. This old woman named Pearl came by in a beat-up skiff, told him to drop the pressure and feed a high-pressure hose back through the intake, did the trick in ten minutes flat. Saved him a whole day of tearing the thing apart. You meet these folks who have fifty years of fighting the river, and they just hand you the fix like it's nothing. Makes you wonder how many good tricks are walking around out there that nobody writes down, right?

riley_wood8425d ago

Now 85 miles of river between Natchez and Vicksburg, so that Pearl story sounds about right for the area. I have to gently correct Sandra on one thing though - you don't want to feed a hose back through the intake on a running dredge. That's how you lose a good hose and maybe a hand too. You shut everything down, pull the suction line clean, and then blast from the discharge side back toward the intake if you're going to use that trick. Pearl likely meant doing it after the pump was off and the line was open on both ends. That old timers' knowledge is priceless, but sometimes the details get fuzzy in the retelling.