The Register of the Kentucky State Historical Society, Frankfort, Ky.  May,
1920, Vol. 18, No. 53. "Famous Steamboats and Their Captains on Western and
Southern Waters.  (Conclusion) by Ella Hutchison Ellwanger. pp. 43-44.
Jefferson County.

CAPTAIN GEORGE McBRIDE.  Another one of the numerous old time captains and
pilots that used to run on the Ohio and Kentucky Rivers, and who have long
since become retired landsmen, but who haunt the river and talk over the
good old days with others of their class, is Captain George McBride, of
Louisville, Kentucky.
	Captain McBride was born in Indiana in 1840, but moved to Louisville with
his parents a year later.  Like nearly all river men who afterwards climbed
to important posts on steamboats, he began life on the river when he was
very young.  His first venture was on the "Harrison Bridges," a sidewheel
steamer, commanded by Captain Coombs, of Bowling Green.  His next venture
was as a pilot on the "Reindeer," and the next position of importance was
that of pilot on the "Jim Montgomery," a boat owned by Sam Montgomery, of
New Albany, Indiana.  He occupied the same position on the "Robert J. Ward"
for two years, when the rebels captured her and kept the boat.  He then
went on the "Fanny Bullitt," and was acting as pilot on her when the war
was declared.  He had also acted as pilot on the folowing [sic] towboats: 
The "A. J. Baker," the "Tom Jones," the "Stella," the "Mary Ann," the "B.
D. Woods," the Nellie Spears," and the "Smokey City."
	It was on the "Jim Montgomery" that he ended his river career.
	Captain McBride was another man who never had a serious accident in all
his river career.  But he was not allowed to say that he had never
experienced a terrible catastrophe while on the water.
	One summer, when he had taken his sixteen year old boy along with him for
the lad's vacation, and while in sight of Baton Rouge, a terrible storm
caught them before they could land.
	In the next few minutes Captain McBride realized that he was dealing with
a cyclone and not a gulf storm.  The wind blew with such intense velocity
that it blew the pilot house into the Mississippi, as well as the "Texas." 
It blew the fire out of the fire box (which proved to be about the best
thing it could have done, under the circumstances.)  The boy, a slim lad,
was thrown from the upper to the lower deck.  He had been asleep and came
out to see what the commotion meant clad only in his one sleeping garment. 
That literally was blown off his back, as he stood holding for dear life to
a beam of the boat.
	He was exhausted when his father got to him and he was wrapped in a
colored patch quilt and put to bed.  To revive him he was given brandy and
water and left in his bunk to rest.  His father relates with a chuckle,
that when they unrolled the sleepy and exhausted boy he resembled nothing
so much as an old fashioned "Easter egg" that had been dyed by wrapping
colored calico about it.
	Not a soul was lost by that disaster, but one man was badly injured and
unable to do any work for many yers, caused by the fall of a heavy beam,
which pinioned him beneath it.
	Captain McBride and wife make their home with a son in the eastern part of
Louisville.

McBride Coombs Montgomery Ward Bullitt Baker Jones Woods Spears
=
IN Bowling_Green-Warren-KY LA

http://www.rootsweb.com/~kygenweb/kybiog/jefferson/mcbride.g.txt