When it comes to maneuvering a powerful towboat in as little as four feet of muddy water, it helps to know the Mississippi River as intimately as Arthur Ward does.
"It's a slow process," the 72-year-old captain of the tricolor Ricky Robinson towboat explained as he delicately shunted utilitarian green and brown freight barges around the port of Memphis.
"You have to go about half-speed,"
