N&W in 1909--Tug boat

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C.C.B. Pocahontas was the brand name that Castner, Curran and Bullitt sold coal from the Pocahontas coalfield under.  CC&B was a selling agent for coal rather than a coal producer.

While I haven't researched this in any depth in some repects CC&B was sucessor to the Pocahontas Company that the N&W was instrumental in organizing in 1895 to sell the output of the Pocahontas coalfield.  At the same time (1896) Castern & Curran advertised themselves as the sole agent for the Pocahontas Company.    

The role of the Pocahontas Company as sucessor to the Flat-Top Coal and Coke Association was set up to market Pocahontas coal, ensure the quality of the coal going to market, and supervise the distribution of both coal and coke cars.  The Pocahontas Company also made all of the collections for the mining companies who were paid on the 20th of each month by Pocahontas Company.  The N&W effectively set the price for coal paid to the operator, but based it on the selling price of coal at the docks.  Pocahontas Company handled about 70% of the output of the Pocahontas coalfield in 1896.  To ensure the quality of the coal being shipped and to protect the brand name Pocahontas Coal, CC&B would send their own inspectors to the tipples to monitor the coal being loaded.  The inspector had the power to refuse acceptance of the coal car if it contained too much rock or not enough lump coal.  If a car was rejected the coal company had to unload the coal car and reload it with the proper blend of coal.

West Virginia passed a law around the turn of the century that basically said a railroad could not be involved with the marketing of coal which led to the demise of the Pocahontas Company, but made CC&B  much more prominent.  The relationship between operator and coal seller remained until about 1907/08 when Justus Collins (Louisville Coal & Coke and Greenbrier Coal & COke) set up his own selling company and refused to turn over his coal to CC&B.  That court case and the one brought by J. Tierney (POwhatan Coal & Coke) on the car distribution system effectively ended the near monopoly on coal sales in the Pocahontas coalfield.  An interesting twist was that J. Tierney was the first president of the Pocahontas Company.

Another twist to the newspaper article is the Panama Canal.  Pocahontas Consolidated Collieries Company, predecessor to Pochontas Fuel Company had the sole contract to provide coal to be used in the machinery building the Panama Canal until Berwind - White Fuel Company complained about it.  The contract was then shared between Berwind-White and Pocahontas Consolidated for a number of years, but by 1912 Pocahontas Consolidated had the sole contract again to supply coal to the Panama Canal authority.   

Alex Schust
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: NW Mailing List 
  To: 2N&W Mailing List 
  Sent: Tuesday, March 03, 2009 5:49 PM
  Subject: N&W in 1909--Tug boat


  Bluefield Daily Telegraph
  April 18, 1909

  TUGBOAT JOHN TWOHY, JR., IS LAUNCHED
  ------
  Built by Man Well Known in Coal Fields and Is Most Powerful Used at Lamberts Point

      Norfolk, Va., April 17--Capt. John Twohy, who is well known by all of the coal operators in the Flat Top coal fields, launched several days ago at Newport News, Va., a new tug boat to be used in docking the steamers at Lambert's Point coal piers.  This boat was christened by Capt. Twohy's son and the boat will be named John Twohy, jr.
      This is the most powerful boat that has ever been used at the Lamberts Point piers in docking steamers, but as the class of steamers that are now being built are much larger, it requires a larger tug boat to put them along side the piers, and as the piers at Lambert's Point are and have been known for years as the largest and fastest bunker coal loading piers in the world, Mr. Twohy has left nothing undone in the building of this boat that will in any way delay the docking of steamers, and with the continued output of the world's famous fuel coal known as the C. C. & B. Pocahontas, all steamers coming to that port are bunkered and sail before steamers at other points are put alongside piers to take on coal.
      The last tug which Mr. Twohy had built was such a powerful and seaworthy tug that President Roosevelt bought it to help handle the dredging machines that are and have been used in the digging of the Panama Canal, and this tug which was built to use C. C. & B. coal has done more work towards building the canal than any other two boats that are there at work.
  ------
  Gordon Hamilton


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