The Interment.....

by RayLee, Sunday, May 17, 2026, 22:02 (1 hours, 39 minutes ago)

Call me nosey and I won't take umbrage and roll up my sleeves and make fists. I confess as to being genetically curious. Can't help it. Call us constitutionally inquisitive. Most of if not all of my antecedents way back to when one of old noah's daughter-in-laws squeezed-out the first of my postdiluvian peoples have been rather impertinent. The vast majority have been nothing more serious than mere gossips but unfortunately, there have certainly been a few window blind/curtain/drape peepers over the millennia.

But then again, surely there must have been some assets to civil and law-abiding society in my family tree, detectives and inspectors and secret agents and the like. We can't be all bad. At least I hope not. Where was I ? Oh, innate curiosity.

There I was in my kayak and drum fishing.....that is to say angling for aplodinotus grunniens. With one hand I was holding onto (for dear life) a rusty mooring stanchion set into the electrical authority's concrete on a wing wall below Wilson Dam. The other hand was busy trying to land at least a twenty pounder. How I managed to hold on to both the iron ring and my fishing rod and be able to turn the reel handle is still a mystery. But in fullness of time I unhooked and released the slimey, scaley beast to finally ken just what was causing the perilous (or do i mean treacherous?) swells of green water that threatened me. A self-propelled dredging barge on a bigger barge was exiting the westbound lock and I guess the lock gates opening had caused the sudden current.

Everything had almost settled down when the tugboat pushing the barge(s) engaged its props or screws or jets and my kayak dropped just enough in a trough that I lost hold of the ring and had to resort to the paddle. Then I just as quickly rose about five feet on a crest. Thankfully, that ridge of water was wide enough that I could paddle thus riding it out instead of being swamped by the chop. So there I was sort of involuntarily following in the wake of the tugboat. With many grunts and much farting, I managed to paddle away from the pull and reach water that was slack enough to finally veer southward to where my truck waited.

Bust a gut or die as they used to say, I surely wanted to know where that dredging barge was bound and what it was about when it got there. But as obtuse as I can oftentimes be, for once I had the sense not to follow in/on the kayak. So it was just happenstance I guess that about an hour later I spied from the highway the same barge and tug but the barge was now empty. That barge must have been of the floodable variety with a bow drop-ramp and the smaller dredging barge had to be loose, presumably back upstream a distance.

After some thinking, I made a u-turn and luckily found both an adequate place to park the truck and a safe place to get the kayak back into the river. In just under a half-hour of more grunting and farting assisted paddling upstream, I rounded a bend and spied what I took to be the dredging barge ahead. As I neared enough to get a better view I exclaimed aloud to no one in particular but myself, "There's a 'shurnuff' yellow submarine !" Kid you not ! Just aft of the dredge cab/turret and attached boom -arm and two-part clawed bucket-pincer lay a bright shiny efficient looking mini-sub.

After the surprise and wonder at encountering the unexpected I remembered back, after the barge had first cleared the lock gates, seeing something rectangular hidden somewhat under silvery tarps. The tarps and the underlying framework that had draped them had obviously been now removed, revealing the submersible contraption.

The river current here was not too bad and I soon got near enough to see and hear activity onboard the barge. It appeared to be anchored to the river's bottom with a substantial bow-chain and there were 5/8 or 3/4 inch lines, aft and starboard, limb-hooked to trees ashore. The barge was just large enough and of an age to have an internal engine as there were no visible outboard motors. Nor could I see any sort of bridge or helm or coxain's console. I assumed that the throttle and rudder steering controls must have been self-contained in the cab/turret and amongst the boom and claw/bucket levers and pedals.

No matter, there was at least a crew of four rough and sun-browned fellows on deck and another visible inside the dredge cab who seemed to be in charge of the operation. The whole turret swiftly swiveled 180°s and the boom deftly dangled the bucket some distance above the submarine as two of the crew hooked chains to both the bucket above and the submarine beneath. Those chains tightened as the submarine rose and was swung outboard free of the barge and lowered to float on river with the two brave souls who had chained it gracefully riding down with the thing.

Just enough slack was given the chains to facilitate unhooking the sub but not quite enough to pinch the men's fingers as the chains retightened and the two men were raised aloft and swung safely back aboard the barge, riding the chain's lower hooks on the arches of each one's right foot. Best I could tell, the submersible operator must have been already onboard it as a face could be seen behind its clear bubble and an equally clear hatch with quick-acting dogging wheels internal and external was raised open.

To be continued.....