 A coal barge, the "George Washington Parke Custis", was cleared of all deck rigging to accommodate the gas generators and apparatus of balloons.From this ship, professor Thaddeus S. C. Lowe, Chief Aeronaut of the Union Army Balloon Corps, made his first ascents over the Potomac River and telegraphed claims of his successful aerial venture.Other barges were converted to assist with the other military balloons transported about the eastern waterways.