Wooden hulls such as the one on the Gillham were very susceptible to damage by heavy ice. Soon after entering service, it set a record time of nine hours, 42 minutes running from Louisville to Cincinnati. The two big boats were moored at Cincinnati when a gorge broke loose, and the ice started moving. As mentioned before, standing by and waiting for the ice to clear was not easy duty. Hatfield (left) and Louisiana in heavy ice above old US Lock 35 on the Ohio River in the late 1940s.