Niagara Scow

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Although technically unnamed, the Niagara Scow is the unofficial name of a small scow that brought two men perilously close to plunging over the Horseshoe Falls, the largest of the Niagara Falls.

On August 8th 1918, Gustave Luffberg and Frank Harris were aboard the scow dredging up sand banks from the Niagara River upstream of the waterfall. When tugboat captain John Wallace brought the Hassayampa over to bring the scow back to shore however, it broke loose and began floating downriver rapidly towards the falls.

There are conflicting reports as to whether or not Luffberg and Harris were able to release the false bottom of the scow to dump their load of sand and silt - but regardless, the boat got caught on a rock shoal about 700 metres from the edge of the falls, leaving the two Niagara Falls Power Company employees stranded in the middle of the raging torrents of water gathering speed as they approached the edge. Later reports suggest that Luffberg had tied a rope between himself and the scow as a safety precaution lest he fall overboard while the scow was still beached, while Harris tied one between himself and a free barrel.[1]

Since a rescue boat was out of the question, the Niagara Falls Fire Department tried using a grappling gun to shoot a life line out towards the barge, from atop the roof of the Toronto Power House while awaiting the arrival of the US Coast Guard from Youngstown, New York to bring a heavier grappling gun. When the US Coast Guard did arrive, they managed to send a lifeline over to the barge, and both marooned men made it safely back to shore, more than 28 hours after they first found themselves drifting towards the falls.

As of 2006, 88 years later, the boat still remains in place, highly visible, caught on the shoal just out of reach of the Niagara Falls, though there is now a plaque across from it on the Canadian side, explaining the history of the wreck they see.