The Severed Cortex

Link: http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/stlouiscitycounty/story/1FC5337D2F5A2602862572700060EDD5?OpenDocument

There were probably a dozen times or more that this almost happened to me. Once on the Tennessee River pushing Crounce coal barges above Kentucky Lock, a deckhand and I were jerking a double-up wire on the very head of the tow. The deckhand ran the ratchet out too far and the worm on one side came out of the barrel. Both of us almost fell over the front while the tow was en route. The center kevel kept us from spilling over. Had we fallen over, we would have both been dead. No question. Another time on the Upper Mississippi we were making the coupling after locking the second cut through. (I don't remember which lock). I was calling the cut through the gates when some slack occurred in the stern line on the first cut. Johnny 'Goat' Pratt went to take the slack up and as he attempted to pull the final wrap tight on the kevel, it slipped off. It's the equivalent of the other side letting go in a tug of war contest. He fell into the water between the two cuts when we were about 15-20 feet from touching up. Johnny would have been smashed like a rotten grape had I not yelled 'Man In the Water!' repeatedly as Captain Al Hicks backed full astern with both engines. Amazingly, as if something out of a cartoon, he was able to pull himself back up on the barges almost instantly. I don't even think he got the bottom of his ZZ Top like beard wet. It rattled me pretty bad and it rattled Al too because he wanted all of us to take a couple of minutes to regroup.