Just got back from delivering a 58' Hatt and saw this unfold in front of me on the upper Mississippi this past Tuesday. Came around a bend and noticed this tow was WAY outside the channel to starboard. The boat was up against the bank, and the barges were almost on top of a red. I couldn't figure out what the hell he was doing for where he was going. As we got closer, I was about to contact him, but we could see he was losing the set and was unhooking the boat. As I saw one barge break free, I grabbed my phone to shoot some video. Heard the captain asking for assistance from other tows in the area as he said he had lost his rudders and was in a bad way. Luckily there was a huge back up at Lock 26 (cost us a day), so there were plenty of them nosed into shore nearby. Would have been interesting to stick around and watch the action, but I was trying to make Rockport, IL before dark and had to keep moving.

A couple of minutes later, the USCG issued a securite, but it was wrong. Said the channel was blocked at river mile 221, but it wasn't. They said nothing about that breakaway barge, but quite a bit later, they issued another warning that said there were two barges loose. Luckily the dikes found them before they caused any damage as that would be a hell of a thing to try to get away from on the river. I've been running the rivers for over 40 years and had never seen anything like that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPqIhGjNu1A