The Niagara Falls barge is a world-wide news story. The Guardian, USA Today, and CNN have video. Which officials are monitoring the barge? Some articles say U.S. officials. I guess they are all monitoring it. It is located on the Canadian side so that's the official 'guardian of the barge'. However, the barge did not come from the Canadian side. It started more than a mile upstream on the American side.
Here's an excerpt of the story found at niagarafrontier.com - it covers the event extensively.
At about 3:10 p.m. on the afternoon of Tuesday August 6th 1918, a steel copper bottomed sand scow (barge) was engaged in dredging operation in the fast currents on the American side of the Niagara River opposite Port Day at the entrance of the Niagara Falls Power Company hydraulic canal.
The scow was being towed by the tug boat - "Hassayampa" being operated by Captain John Wallace along with the assistance of tug Mayer, with Captain Enos White and the tug Kinch, with Captain Charles Smith.
The scow had two deck hands aboard. They were Gustave Ferdinand Lofberg, age 51 of 275 Mackinaw Street, Buffalo NY and James Henry Harris, age 40, a father of five children of 860 Niagara Street, Buffalo NY. Harris had no seafaring experience. He was a rigger by trade and had worked for the company for only one month. The Swedish born Lofberg was a weathered and seasoned saltwater sailor. He had worked on the Great Lakes for years.
During the operation, the tug Hassayampa suddenly struck and grounded on a rock shoal/sandbar approximately a ½ mile upriver from the Falls. The taut steel towline that held the barge to the tug snapped "like a thin string". The 80 feet long and 30 feet wide scow was set adrift.
The whistles of the five tugs on the river were blowing continuously. The four tugs went to the aid of the Hassayampa and the alarm was spread that the scow had broken free. Rome Coddington, superintendant of the Hydraulic Power Company arrived only moments after the barge was adrift. He notified the Niagara Falls Fire Department in Niagara Falls, Ontario and the Coast Guard stations at Buffalo and Fort Niagara.
The powerless barge containing approximately 2,000 tonnes of sand and rock quickly drifted out of control downriver into the Canadian channel and towards the Horseshoe Falls. Lofberg and Harris were helpless and could do nothing to stop the scow. According to some reports, they were seen trying to slow the swift progress of the scow with the use of makeshift oars but with no success.
The river descends 15 meters (50 feet) through a series of rapids and cascades. The Cascade area is divided into two channels by Goat Island. These channels carry the flow of the water to both the Horseshoe Falls and the American Falls. The rock strata located upstream of the Horseshoe Falls tilts 20 feet (6m) towards the Canadian shoreline in 1 mile (1.6 km).
From a distance, citizens witnessed the two men working desperately on the barge. Harris and Lofberg made ready in hope that the scow would go aground, and it did about 2,500 feet above the brink of the Horseshoe Fall, over which only two persons had previously gone over in barrels and survived.
Lofberg and Harris could only hope and pray for a miracle as they faced to see rising mist of the great Horseshoe Falls growing closer by the second. The roar of the Falls echoed in their ears. In a twist of fate, the scow swung sideways in the turbulent water, grounded and became lodged on a rock shoal 2,500 feet (767m) upriver from the Horseshoe Falls in the shallow but fast moving cascades. The barge had travelled about 1.25 miles.
There is much more to the story...the rescue itself. We have a lovely garden statue today.
