Newcombe, a logging operator, attempted to drive 500,000 feet of hardwood down the Neches on June 21, 1906. The longest stick measured eighty-four feet and the shortest sixty feet. Rafts were divided into ten sections, chained together, which stretched for almost a mile and a half. The oil tanker Ligonier struck the boom just after it reached the Port Arthur canal, causing fourteen of the logs to sink and block the canal. The underwriters of New York cancelled all insurance until the canal was cleared, which would take about three days.