Your Sentinel Old Memory Part 1

      Small Boat, Overloaded, Capsized in Flood Waters. Part 1

      The picture is grandpa back then in time

      This one goes back to 1959. Dad and grandpa had acquired the lease and possession of the clubhouse off the Mississippi river in December of 58 and with spring coming on in 1959 they were anxious to make use of the place. In those days, the Mississippi flooded nearly every spring and 59 was no exception. Grandpa had bought a small aluminum boat, just 8 feet long. He planned on using a small trolling motor to get around for fishing in calm waters of the slough. Dad wanted to check for any damage to the clubhouse and the plan was dad, grandpa and me with dad driving as close as possible and then paddling the rest of the way through whatever flood waters that had been trapped over normally dry land. The flood had started receding, but not much.
      Somehow another man managed to get invited along. We picked him up at his home along the way. He hauled out a 25 horse outboard motor and a 5 gallon tank of gas, adding over 250 pounds between he, the motor and the gas. I was just 13 at the time, but that much extra load in a small light weight boat did not sit well with me. We couldn't get anywhere near where we wanted to start from. We were well over a mile south of the club and the plan was to load the boat and go out on the river and then duck into the next slough north were our place was. We walked a half mile in dragging the boat to where we could load it, start the motor and head out for the club.
      The 50 pound motor went on the back transom, the 5 gallon can of gas on the deck right below it. The extra man on the aft bench by the motor and dad beside him. That put at least 450 pounds at the transom. That was more weight than the small boat would normally handle. Grandpa was on the middle seat and my job was to launch the boat away from the shoreline and ride on the forward seat.
      The top of the transom was just 3 inches above the water. I pushed the boat out from the shore and it went straight down to the bottom of the water. I never had a chance to get in the boat, it went down so fast.
      End part 1 Part 2 will follow.