Casey barge guardian now without a mission

David Eck, better known as Captain Dave, sits on the Oligati Bridge over looking the barge as he waits for its departure on April 30, 2015 in Chattanooga.
David Eck, better known as Captain Dave, sits on the Oligati Bridge over looking the barge as he waits for its departure on April 30, 2015 in Chattanooga.

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Allen Casey's rundown barge headed downstream at last; restaurant's departure opens door for riverfront projects

This was the day Dave Eck had been waiting for. The day he thought would come, just not this soon. The day he said he would shed a tear as he said goodbye.

Eck, 63, known from City Hall to dive bars as Captain Dave, wore an uncharacteristically clean collared shirt. He bought a roll of film for his old bronze camera.

He called his friends. He called the mayor's office. He called every TV station in town. He invited them to gather at his favorite spot, Good Dog on Frazier Avenue, for a sendoff party.

It was the day the despised Casey barge was set to finally be hauled away.

While everyday Chattanoogans griped about the state of the barge, which was the antithesis of Chattanooga's proud riverfront redevelopment, Captain Dave was perhaps its only defender.

It was his ship. He was its captain. For months, he lived on the two-story vessel. He slept in a tent inside and fished off its front dock.

Without the barge, Captain Dave might have disappeared among the other drifters and homeless walking around the North Shore. But in a white captain's hat that he bought at the Southern Belle gift shop, people recognized him.

He inserted himself right in the middle of the controversy last fall. He boarded the vessel uninvited. He says he stayed busy checking the pumps, keeping her afloat. He ran off teenagers and vandals. Though no one hired him, he was the barge's protector and wanted to be its spokesman.

So it only seemed right for him to send her off.

photo The Casey barge is ready to move with tug attached late Thursday afternoon. Strong wind out of the north northwest created white caps on the Tennessee River.

On Wednesday, Good Dog owner Susan Payden peeled off the $3 price tags from two bottles of sparkling wine that Captain Dave had picked up. She put them on ice in a silver-colored prep bowl from the kitchen.

But the only ones who showed up for his party were people with notebooks and cameras.

Captain Dave sat by himself at the front booth reading a newspaper. He did an interview outside, untied his dog, Patches, from the mooring rope he found on the barge and headed for the river.

The tugboat had just arrived to take the barge away.

Captain Dave has become a fixture on the North Shore among residents, business owners and even police for his frequent calls, ranging from complaints of theft to vandalism. While many view him as just another eccentric character, few know much about him.

Depending on who you ask, he's either a hero or a villain.

The man who saved the barge. Or the man who sank it.

***

Eck grew up in southern Indiana. He was the oldest of four. His dad was a civil engineer and a former Navy man, he said, and his mom was a nurse. He says he's always loved the water. He jokes about how his mother told the nurse in the hospital she had handed her the wrong baby because of his webbed feet.

He says he's worked as a crane operator, owned his own excavation company and held numerous other construction gigs. The Times Free Press could not verify his employment history, but federal records show he did earn a civil engineering degree from Valparaiso University, as he claims.

He says he's estranged from his two ex-wives, three children and three siblings. Over the last decade, he's kept Chattanooga as his mailing address, he said, as he worked various temporary gigs around the country. He says he was on a houseboat on the Tennessee River the day the barge came into town in 2009 - he remembers the horn of the tugboat waking him up.

In the fall of 2014, Captain Dave says, he settled in Chattanooga after he had finished a job in Oklahoma City. He says he stayed at the Chattanooga Inn on 23rd Street for about two weeks until he ran out of money. During that time, he was keeping a distant eye on the barge, he said. He was dismayed that no one else seemed to be checking on its pumps.

So he moved onto the barge, which by that time had been deteriorating on the North Shore for years. Allen Casey hauled it here in 2009 with hopes of creating a floating restaurant and bar. But that never happened. Casey declared bankruptcy in 2014 and local officials have been working to evict the barge from the waterfront for months.

During the winter, Captain Dave made his way off the exposed barge and into an abandoned trailer on shore. He's moved it a couple times since and is now parked just a few blocks down the road on an empty lot, just steps away from the river. Still, he kept a close eye on the barge.

"You can't keep Captain Dave off the water," he said.

photo The Casey barge rounds Moccasin Bend on the Tennessee River late Thursday, April 30, 2015, near the base of Lookout Mountain, in this view from Interstate 24.

As the city's patience with the barge grew thin, Captain Dave gained more attention. He let news crews on the barge. His phone rang more often as people checked on its condition.

Jackson Wingfield, who owns property next to Casey's land off Manufacturers Road, said he thinks Captain Dave saved the barge from sinking.

"I know he did," he said. "He was pumping it out."

Wingfield occasionally lets Captain Dave on his property and has given him cash a few times to buy some food or go to the laundromat. Wingfield has heard stories about Captain Dave's past, but didn't know what to think. After learning that he had in fact earned an engineering degree, Wingfield said he was impressed.

"I'm an engineer, too. That's not an easy feat," Wingfield said. "I just don't know how he got in this condition."

Old bicycles, debris and a fire pit surround Captain Dave's trailer. Inside, the countertops and futon are covered in piles of clothes, empty boxes and trash. Along with his meek dog, he keeps two rabbits and a guinea pig in a wire cage set on the floor. There's no running water or electricity. Under the sink, he keeps old soda bottles he fills up with water at an outdoor faucet on a nearby building.

He gets around town on a mountain bike and showers at the Community Kitchen.

But none of this bothers him. It's just the reality of his situation and, he says, material things aren't everything.

Captain Dave thinks the barge got an unfair rap. He thinks it could have been saved. It could have been a great floating restaurant, he said, if only Casey had taken care of it.

"Nobody right now in this town, other than probably me, can say something good about that barge," he said. "And it's not the barge's fault."

But attorney Gary Patrick, who represents creditors in Casey's bankruptcy case, said he believes Captain Dave was responsible for the barge's sinking in March. Hoses that were diverting water from the barge out into the river were turned around, pushing water right back into the vessel, causing it to sink.

"He was the only one with access," Patrick said. "We don't know who else could have done it."

Eck sought compensation in bankruptcy court for the work he did taking care of the barge. And he made an unsuccessful offer to be the one to haul it away, Patrick said.

Eck has had some trouble with the law. In December 2013, he was arrested for throwing a pool stick at Legion's bar. And in December 2014, he was cited for carrying a knife into City Hall. Both cases were dismissed, court records show.

He denies he had anything to do with the barge's apparent sabotage. He says he was out applying for a job when the barge sank. Plus, whoever sank the barge actually did Chattanooga a favor, he said, as it expedited the work of federal, state and local officials

"If it hadn't sunk again, this thing could have drug out even more," he said.

***

Captain Dave has become a regular at Good Dog. He's an early riser and often sees the staff before the store opens for breakfast at 7 a.m. There, Captain Dave told Payden, the owner, stories of his previous jobs, other states he's lived in. She saw something special in him and listened to his stories.

She wants to believe him, but she's never quite sure.

"I still feel like I don't know if it's true," she said, "because I can't figure it out."

photo A tug moves the Casey barge as it begins its journey away from Chattanooga late Thursday afternoon.

She says Captain Dave is just one of the characters that make Chattanooga great. And everyone has a story and deserves to be heard.

"He's special," she said. "There's something about him that stands out."

And Captain Dave seems to agree.

"This is really way out there and really kind of crazy," he said, "but I kind of feel maybe that this is the life Jesus led. Because basically, he was homeless. He was homeless, but he took care of other people."

On Thursday, after the barge's departure had been delayed a day, Captain Dave turned his sights to Nashville, where he hoped to get a job operating a crane, though he planned to come back to Chattanooga on the weekends. But that job was over just about as soon as it began, he says, because his wallet was stolen and he didn't have his proper paperwork with him. So he headed back to Chattanooga on Saturday to figure something else out.

He missed the barge's sendoff because of his Nashville trip. But he wasn't heartbroken.

As the Greyhound bus headed up Interstate 24, he squatted in the aisle looking across both sets of seats. As the bus zoomed over Nickajack Lake, he saw something out the right window. He's sure it was the barge.

He likes to think he was one of the last Chattanoogans to get a glimpse.

Staff writers Kendi Anderson and Maura Friedman contributed to this story.

Contact staff writer Kevin Hardy at khardy@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6249.

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