The World Cruise of Veleda IV

Kentucky Lake to Shiloh

"The horror of Civil War."

In my last log we entered the Tennessee River and were going through Kentucky Lake. We spent three nights at anchor on our way through, in various creeks which emptied into the lake - lovely tranquil anchorages.

Kentucky Lake narrowed into the Tennessee River as we kept going down it. There were still some tows encountered, but not many and not very large. The largest tow we saw was on the Ohio River, of 42 barges, six wide by seven long. They would cover an area of 180 feet wide by 770 feet long, plus another 100 feet for the tow itself. We really didn't have any problem with the tows as there was usually adequate room, and communications with the tow skippers were good. The trickiest parts were on the few occasions when we were overtaking a tow. It might be doing 5.5 knots and we might be doing 5.9 knots. We would let the tow skipper know we were overtaking and he would recommend which side to go and in some cases would slow down a bit for us. We would then accelerate as much as possible to get through his stern wake, then it would take several minutes of advancing alongside several hundred feet of moving steel walls, trying not to get too close to the shore and shallows, and not too close to the tow in order not to get sucked into its side currents and crash into the side of it. There was another bow wave we would have to negotiate and keep clear to the side until we were at least one barge length ahead before we could resume our normal speed and centre Veleda in the channel once again. It provided a few tense minutes of very careful steering, but was manageable.

On down the Tennessee River the banks were low and very little civilization was evident. We could not see much over the levees and did not know what was beyond them. One thing we found useful was a road map of the area. It gave us a better frame of reference of the part of the state we were travelling through.

On October 28 we anchored inside the downstream side of Diamond Island just before noon hour. We launched Sprite, our dinghy, and motored down to Catfish Hotel which we had read about in our guide book, and which was right beside Shiloh Battlefield Park. After a lovely lunch of catfish and grits, we went over to the park. Both Judy and I are interested in Civil War history, and especially the role played by the navy. It was a large park and as we were on foot, we did not have a chance to see all of it. However there was a very good information centre with a twenty minute video account of the   battle    and a good display area of artifacts, uniforms, maps and flags.

We returned to our anchorage to find another trawler, Cassia Lea, had anchored upstream of us. We went over to say "Hi" and were invited on board for martinis. We enjoyed the company of Ed and Ev Van Allen, a spry interesting couple from a town called Little Canada in Minnesota. We left the next day for Pickwick Lock. 

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Links:
Battle of Shiloh

Civil War Images