George W. King

KING

Posted By: Rebecca Foster (email)
Date: 9/7/2014 at 09:33:10

Capt. George W. King, River man, dies at 72

Officer of Pilots’ Association for 10 years; first job on boat at 16.

Capt. George W. King, a river man since 1877 and for ten years secretary-treasurer of the Pilots’ Masters’ and Mates’ Association of Inland Rivers, died of paralysis Monday at his home, 5204 Kensington Avenue. He was 72 years old.

The association met at its headquarters in the Merchants-Laclede Building and voted, in resolutions citing his half-century of membership, his character and spirit, to drape its charter in mourning for 30 days.

Outstanding among the anecdotes of Capt. King’s years on the river was the story of his building a bulkhead under seven feet of water in the Gen. Abbott, an Army Engineers’ towboat. On its maiden trip from St. Louis in 1896, the Abbott struck a snag and sank five miles below commerce, Mo.

A diver was sent for to investigate the damage. Meantime Capt. King, without diving apparatus, went down and discovered a gash three feet wide and many feet long in the hull. With a helper to stand on his shoulders and hold him down, the captain, an expert ship carpenter, repaired the hole so that the water could be pumped out and the steamer raised. When the diver arrived two days after the boat sank, there was nothing for him to do.

Capt. King was born in Lima O., and had resided in St. Louis since he was 10 years old. At 16 he got his first river job as a deck sweeper on a packet boat. For a time he was employed by the old Mississippi Valley Transportation Co. barge line. He was pilot of the Dolphin No.3. Of which Capt. John E. Lubben was master, towing railroad ties from Southern forests to St. Louis.

In 1893 he entered the engineer service in this district as mate, pilot and captain. For some years he was chief mate of the Government snag boat Wright. He served also on the Gen. King retiring in 1923 to take his less physically demanding office in the river men’s organization, he was director of by the engineers in the flood of 1927 to pilot relief stations under command of Maj. C. Gotwals, among the bayous of Louisiana.

Source: Unknown.