Dwarfing the Titanic

Dwarfing the Titanic. Did you Know?. Deep-water ships cannot sail the Mississippi River. The river is frequently too shallow, and its strong currents would play havoc with ships designed to navigate oceans. At its headwaters, the Mississippi is less than three feet deep. Nor could we imagine a ship the size of the ill-fated Titanic managing to make the numerous turn of the Mississippi River., However, the barges and their accompanying towboats that travel the Mississippi today are actually larger than the Titanic. The Titanic was 880 feet long and 92 feet wide. A typical middle-Mississippi River tow with towboats and barges averages 1,200 feet long and 200 feet wide. Imagine steering that!, Elsewhere in the world, towboats are called pushboats, because they push rather than tow their barges. Along the Mississippi River, barges were originally tied to the sides of steamboats and towed. The name eventually stuck. As more barges were pushed rather than towed, stern-wheel "paddle wheelers" replaced side-wheel boats. All paddle wheeler were eventually replaced by diesel-powered propellers in the 1930s. The diesel engines can produce 10,000 horsepower. The Titanic's 29 boilers could produce 50,000 horsepower., Each barge can carry 1,500 tons of cargo- about 60 times more than a single tractor trailer. A towboat with its typical load of barges can carry as much as a line of tractor trailers 50 miles long., The modern towboat is well-equipped for navigating the river. Detailed river maps, computers, depth finders, color radar and GPS systems make traveling the river safe and efficient.