Life on the River
Aaron Burch
T
Capt. Herman Harrington began his career as a
deck hand heading up the Mississippi River in 1974.
In this photo, he prepares a barge for docking
here are no patients to care for when
you’re traveling down the Mississippi River on The Viking Queen,
an enormous barge driven by Capt. Herman
“Butch” Harrington. But there’s an operating
room from which all the most important
decisions on the vessel are decided.
for a time.”
“The first time I ever walked into a wheelhouse, I knew what I wanted to do with my
life,” Capt. Harrington said standing in his
own operating room on The Viking Queen,
which he pilots with his new partner, Capt.
Shane Price hailing from Beardstown, Ill.
Harrington, a self-taught saxophonist,
guitar player and singer spent much of his
time after high school touring with his band,
Our Brother’s Keeper. Though the group had
mild success, Harrington drifted to other
interests. But when he finally ventured onto
the river, his mind was made up.
A tall, stocky man with dirty blonde hair
and a beard that looks like it hasn’t left his
face in years, Capt. Harrington spends half
his time driving some of the largest barge
loads possible up and down the southern
half of the Mississippi. The other half he
spends with his wife, Gail Harrington, MD,
ER doctor (beloved far and wide for her
calm and stalwart excellence) and their
daughter, Kathryn, in Louisville. But even
then, he doesn’t stay too far away from the
water he calls home.
The captains and their crew make six trips
a year down the lower end of the Mississippi
carrying all sorts of supplies and equipment
down to the Gulf of Mexico and back up to
St. Louis, Missouri. Each journey lasts between 21 and 30 days, with a similar amount
of time to rest in between.
A view of the wheelhouse sans captain shows the
basic controls, steering, speed and more at a barge
captain’s fingertips.
Capt. Harrington has driven the Viking Queen for
years, sharing duties most recently with Co-Captain
Shane Price.
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LOUISVILLE MEDICINE
It’s a far cry from his first boat trip in