Port of Decatur to replace its 'heart and soul' with new fleet boat

Sep. 9—A familiar sight on the Tennessee River for more than 50 years, the Port of Decatur's sole fleet boat and its "heart and soul," the Mary Ethel, will be replaced by a new vessel in approximately two weeks.

"You get to know her, and she's fixing to go," said Captain Willie Harris, of Decatur, who was a deckhand on the Mary Ethel for 15 years before moving up to the wheelhouse. "Maybe like your first car. May not be the best car, but you kind of love it. And eventually, you know, you have to get a new car."

At 60 feet, the Mary Ethel is smaller than the 12-15 line-haul towboats operating on the Tennessee River at any given time. "Towboat" is a bit of a misnomer, as both the Mary Ethel and line-haul boats actually push barges, rather than pull them.

The Mary Ethel's size works in its favor, as it's responsible for taking barges from line-haul boats and maneuvering them in the tight spaces of the port for unloading or offloading cargo.

"A line-haul boat is what comes in with 15 barges," said Dan Benken, director of port and barge line services for Tuscaloosa-based Parker Towing, which purchased the Port of Decatur from the Decatur Transit Company in 2014. "Line-haul boats are too big to do anything with the tow other than push it, so the Mary Ethel has to pull everything off of (line-haul boats) and put it in the fleet and park the barges for them."

The Mary Ethel works around the clock with a crew of one captain and two deckhands, according to Benken. Crews work 12-hour shifts and alternate schedules every seven days, with one crew working daylight hours, one working nights, and one resting.

"There's no holidays, no weekends in the barge industry," said Benken. "It's constant. The docks don't stop, we don't stop."

When the crew of the Mary Ethel isn't shifting barges, there's still plenty of work to be done onboard.

"As we all know with boats, there's constant maintenance," Benken said. "So, when you're not doing anything, you're chipping, you're painting, you're cleaning, you're greasing, you're fueling — all of the above. It's nonstop for the guys on the boat."

The Port of Decatur mostly handles hopper barges that hold dry cargo, such as soybeans, corn, wheat and other grains, according to Benken.

"The Tennessee River is traditionally more of an inbound river versus an outbound river, so the majority of what comes in are loads, a lot of what goes out are empties," said Benken.

During harvest season, the port sees more outbound barges headed toward the Gulf of Mexico, Benken said.

Nucor Corp., the largest steel manufacturer in North America with a facility west of the Port of Decatur, also brings in a lot of raw materials such as steel and aggregates.

"There's more products going inbound and outbound in Decatur than in any other city on the Tennessee River," said Rick Terry, who worked for the Port of Decatur from 1982 to 2020 and is now the vice president of port operations/development for Alliance Sand and Aggregates. "It's the largest port on the Tennessee River."

A typical barge can hold around 1,500 tons of cargo, which is equivalent to around 70 tractor-trailers worth, according to Benken. Line-haul boats on the Tennessee River push up to 15 barges at one time.

"Fifteen times 70 — that's how many trucks are not running up and down Interstate 65 to get cargo here," said Benken. "Line-haul boats are big, it's a lot of horsepower, but when you break it down to what the per ton cost is, it's exponentially better for the environment."

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History

Decatur Transfer and Storage, which eventually grew into Decatur Transit, purchased the Tennessee Valley Authority Public Use River Terminal in 1965. The owners of the company, W.J. Williams and Mary Ethel Williams, put in $185,000 of their own money to turn the property into a viable port, according to Terry.

A Decatur Transfer and Storage advertisement from shortly after the acquisition was provided to The Decatur Daily by Morgan County Archives. It reads:

"We accept the challenge of continuing to make Decatur the transportation, warehousing, and distribution hub for the entire north Alabama area. An experienced marine manager will be sought and an active program will be carried out to develop and secure potential users of our waterway and utilization of our warehousing, local cartage, distribution and docking facilities."

Williams was a man with a lot of vision, Terry said.

"He could see that when a boat would come in, they were actually having to drop barges and put them to the docks," he said. "There was a need for a harbor boat. So, Williams, B.J. Lawrence (the first Port captain), and company president Bill Sherman started doing research."

The Mary Ethel was one of two boats with an atypically tall wheelhouse built by the Mississippi Marine Corporation in Greenville, Mississippi, according to Terry. He said Decatur Transit purchased the vessel, originally named the Reddy Teddy, for $147,000 in 1971. The boat was renamed for Williams' wife.

"The Mary Ethel has a 24-foot eye level, so it's a big deal," Terry said. "A typical harbor boat doesn't sit that high, so seeing over that empty barge is difficult."

The design of the Mary Ethel was so favored that Terry said it was used as a model for a boat built for Nucor in 1997.

The Mary Ethel came equipped with 600-horsepower, twin-screw Cat engines, and four rudders that offered exceptional mobility for working in tight spaces, Terry said.

"We repowered the boat in 1986 and pushed it up to 800 horsepower," Terry said. "That was the last time brand new engines were actually put in. We've done rebuilds on the engines since then."

Outside of dry docking the Mary Ethel every four or five years for a one- to two-month maintenance phase, Terry said the boat and its round-the-clock operation have been critical to the Port's success.

"The Mary Ethel is the heart and soul of the Port of Decatur," he said. "Lawrence had that vision, along with Sherman and Williams, of a boat. They felt like a boat was going to be needed here and none of this would have happened without that."

Decatur Transit employees worked hard to take care of the Mary Ethel.

"Maintaining it and having good people who ran it for you — you got to have good people," Terry said. "We always had good boat pilots and made sure that they were qualified to run it.

"We ran this facility with one boat for a long, long time."

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Future

Mary Ethel's replacement, due to arrive late this month, was built at Serodino Shipyard in Chattanooga, according to Benken. It will be named the Johnny E Holt after a Parker Towing port engineer and longtime employee of the company.

"Usually, it's named after people of significance at a company who've put in a lot of time and done great things for the company, and that's what Johnny's done for Parker Towing," Benken said.

As barges have grown larger since the Mary Ethel's debut, Benken said eye level was a consideration in the construction of the new vessel. Benken said the Johnny E Holt will be similar in design and dimensions to the Mary Ethel.

"The biggest difference of the new boat is the horsepower: it's almost double at 1,550 horsepower," he said. "Now, you can get a higher horsepower boat that actually burns less fuel. So, you're getting a much safer boat with more horsepower, so that if you ever have high-water flows, you're always able to shift (barges)."

Benken said the last thing they want to do is have to tell someone that the water is running too quickly and that they don't have a boat that can retrieve a barge.

"Because that means their labor's not working. That means their plant's shut down. We have a responsibility here — it's not just servicing this facility — we have a responsibility to service everybody. They count on us day in and day out."

Benken expects the new vessel will benefit all the docks that they service in the area.

"The Johnny E Holt will be around well past my tenure," he said. "You want to see about another 50 years out of that boat."

Parker Towing will hold a christening for the new boat at some point in the future, according to Benken.

Although Captain Harris said he'll miss the Mary Ethel, he's excited to get his hands on the Johnny E Holt's superior power.

"I'm positive the new boat will be a better boat," he said.

As for the Mary Ethel, Benken said his company hasn't yet decided on its fate.

"The boat still has life, and it may find itself somewhere else on a different river system, but probably not up here on the Tennessee River," he said.

— david.gambino@decaturdaily.com or 256-340-2438.