ROLLING DOWN THE RIVER

Robert W. Erlbacher II used the Missouri Dry Dock & Repair Co. shipbuilding and repair yard south of the Mississippi River bridge at Cape Girardeau as a playground as a youngster.

As a high school student, he spent a lot of time aboard Missouri Barge Line Co. boats as they hauled cement up and down the middle Mississippi River.

Today he is president of the two sister companies.

The companies, both of which started as family operations, are still family-run. The barge line is celebrating 50 years in the business this year.

Erlbacher, who assumed operation of the business following graduation from Southeast Missouri State University in 1970, is president and his sister, Elizabeth Ann Dombrowski, is secretary-treasurer.

"We have seven boats moving up and down the Mississippi River, from St. Paul, Minn., to New Orleans, and in the lower reaches of the Ohio River," Erlbacher said. "One of the boats -- the motor vessel Curtis Moore -- operates out of the harbor here. The other six boats are located up and down the Mississippi."

Meanwhile, the dry dock and repair company, 500 Aquamsi, continues to repair barges and towboats. The operation includes two dry docks, a 3,250-ton and a 2,200-ton; a complete machine shop; steel fabrication shop; dry barge cleaning facilities; and a propeller repair shop.

Although towboat engines aren't overhauled at the facility, it does do overhaul work on its own boats.

Erlbacher is quick to complement the people who work, or have worked for the companies.

"You've got to have good people to last 50 years in this business," he said. "We've been very blessed in both of these companies with good, loyal people who have helped us survive the tough times and prosper in the good times."

This is evidenced by looking at the employee roster, which includes two and three generations of workers.

No less than seven members of the Fornkohl family work in the shipyard's propeller repair shop. They are Delbert Fornkohl, Eldon Fornkohl, Kenny Fornkohl, Larry Fornkohl, Lester Fornkohl, Robin Fornkohl, Scott Fornkohl, Shannon Fornkohl and Tom Fornkohl.

Three generations of the Busche family have worked in the maintenance operations department. Three of them -- Bobby Joe Busche, Carl Busche and Ron Busche -- remain on the employee list.

The Missouri Barge Lines list of workers and former workers include names like C. W. "Woody" Rushing, a riverboat pilot who worked with the company 39 years before retiring; Curtis Moore, Mike Rushing, Bob Nally, Arthur Snider, Jim Buttry, Milton Roth, Jack Jines and Leo Steger, who is now general manager of the barge lines.

Following some rough times during the 1980s and the flood of 1993, the future is looking bright. All of the company's line-haul boats are under contract for the rest of this year, Erlbacher said. Most are operating cement tows and one is in the general cargo trade.

The two companies today employ about 105 people.

Missouri Barge Line's primary load for a number of years has been cement, but when the company started in 1945, oil tows moving from the Houston-Corpus Christi, Texas area to the upper Mississippi and Illinois rivers, were the major loads.

Missouri Barge Line grew out of a partnership between Robert Erlbacher Sr. and his brother, Eddie Erlbacher, who had formed the Erlbacher Brothers Barge Line in the 1930s, towing oil before and during World War II. Shell Oil Co. was the primary customer.

C. W. "Woody" Rushing joined the Erlbacher Brothers company in 1940.

Following WWII, Eddie Erlbacher, who was also operating a machine shop, decided to get out of the barge line business. Robert L. Erlbacher Sr. and his wife, Mable, purchased some of the Erlbacher Brothers equipment and formed a partnership, called Missouri Barge Line Co., starting operations in 1945.

A year later, Robert Erlbacher II was born, and Mrs. Erlbacher stopped working at the barge line. A captain of one of the boats, Woody Rushing, was brought into the office and named port captain. He later became general manager, before retiring in 1979. Missouri Barge Line's motor vessel, "C. W. Rushing" is named in his honor. Rushing's son, Mike Rushing, also worked with the company a number of years as port captain before founding his own company, Rushing Marine Ways, with his father.

It was in the mid-1950s that Robert Erlbacher Sr. added a shipyard to the company business.

Missouri Dry Dock & Repair Co. was born just below the Cape Girardeau bridge, where it is today.

The patented "Latham Process" for propeller repairs was developed at the shipyards and named after Bill Latham, a longtime shipyard employee. The process involves a machine that allows the operator to work on a small part of the propeller blade, always keeping the area being worked on parallel to the work table.

Robert Erlbacher Sr. was awarded a patent for the process, one of about a dozen patents he received during his career. His inventions include the "Forever Running Ever Lasting" oil-lubricated bearing; a "tubular" rudder designed on the same theory as kort nozzle; and the "Rubumper," a bolt-on rubber fender.

Of the towboats now owned by Missouri Barge Line, all but one were built at the sister company, Missouri Dry Dock & Repair and Cape Girardeau Fleeting Inc.

They include the Bow Boat Number 1, which was built with a unique turntable bow. That vessel was later converted into a regular towboat and renamed Joanne, after Robert W. Erlbacher II's wife.

Others are the Elizabeth Ann, named after Elizabeth Ann Dombrowski, Arthur E. Snider, Curtis Moore, Jim Buttry and Bill Wyndham.

The shipyard also built the Stanton K. Smith, which is operated as the Bradley T., by Tolen Marine Inc.

It wasn't until the mid-1960s that Missouri Barge Line started hauling cement for the Marquette Cement Co. in Cape Girardeau. Erlbacher purchased the MV Nicholas Duncan from Marquette Co., and used it several years in the hauling of cement.

Missouri Barge Lines expanded its cement-hauling business through the 1960s and 1970s. The younger Erlbacher was in college when his father died in 1968. But with the help of Woody Rushing on the barge side, and Curtis Moore, who has worked for the firm since the mid-1950s, on the shipyard side, the company was kept sailing on smooth waters until Erlbacher graduated from college in 1970 and took over the company business.

Moore was appointed general manager of the shipyard in the early 1960s and is credited with much of the growth during that period. Moore retired in 1987.

After Moore retired, Kent Hoffmeister managed the shipyard; Jim Buttry is the current general manager.

On the barge side, another key employee includes Arthur Snider, who has been the company's post engineer from day one. The company surprised him by renaming a towboat the Arthur E. Snider.