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05/10/2009 12:43 pm
Last evening I made one of my periodic phone calls to Capt. Charles Henry Stone. He answered promptly and for the next hour we chatted and laughed about many topics. Now 94 and mobility challenged, Capt. Charles Henry is plenty sharp and there's very little happening on the river that he doesn't know about. A conversation with him is like reading The Waterways Journal back in the "good old days" when each page contained all kinds of news and personal items! Capt. Charley was recently the grand marshall in a parade celebrating the river and he was driven down Main Street in a Model A. He is very proud of the Point Pleasant River Museum and says they continue to receive donations of river memorabilia and to host many community events. An authentic towboat pilothouse has been set up near the museum building and converted into "The Captain's Creamery", dispensing ice cream and other refreshments. Also new at the museum is a large and custom made model of the Str. HOMER SMITH, presented by the granddaughters of Homer Smith. I am proud to be a LIFE member of this fine institution (like the Howard, another little museum that CAN and DOES!) and their latest newsletter chronicles all of the recent exciting happenings there, under the able direction of Jack Fowler, the indefatigable administrator.
Capt. Charles Henry is, of course, very sorry that he can no longer travel to attend S&D meetings or other river gatherings, but asked me to convey his greetings to his MANY friends along the waterways. A long and two shorts of the whistle in salute to a beloved icon of the river!
05/10/2009 2:15 pm
Ay'll bayut yew don't know hew this eeis.
Topic starter
05/10/2009 2:49 pm
I can't count the times I've picked up the phone and heard that delightful preface on the other end of the line! I immediately say, "Capt. Charles Henry how are ya?" -- and his response is always, "Well you DEW know hew this eeis!"
Capt. Charley conveyed the sad news of the recent passing of William R. Smith, 82, of Springfield, Ohio. Bill and Marga were longtime regular attendees at S&D meetings until health declined. MANY of Marga's fine photos have been used in issues of the S&D REFLECTOR over the past several decades. Bill's grandfather operated the Smith Drydock at Point Pleasant for many years. I last spoke with Bill about six months ago. He was on oxygen and it was a struggle for him to converse, but he was still enthusiastic and eager for river news. A whistle salute to his memory and sympathy to Marga and the family.
05/10/2009 4:47 pm
Boats in movies
Bill and Marga compiled a very extensive list of movies in which steamboats have appeared. I can't remember, was that ever published in the Reflector?
Topic starter
06/10/2009 1:23 pm
The list of steamboats appearing in movies was published in The Waterways Journal, in several installments -- as part of Jimmy Swift's old boat column. I think that I extracted those pages and have them in a file folder on river movies.
Here are a few images of the one and only Capt. Charles Henry Stone, taken with yours truly aboard the M.V. DOGWOOD in June, 1996, here at Louisville during the Steamboat History Conference.
06/10/2009 4:37 pm
Capt. Charles Henry Stone at Marietta
One of the highlights of S&D weekend was always the report of the OK chapter Capt. Charles Henry would give at the Saturday morning business meeting. Always suspenseful, waiting to find out how much they had in the cigar box treasury, and other hilarious details. Naturally I couldn't find a pix of him speaking, but here is one of Capt. Charles Henry Stone with Grace Hawley, mother of Ken and Doc, at a Friday night reception. I don't have a date on it, but it can't be the time Keith and I supplied the cake to celebrate her 90th birthday, because everyone would have been coated in red dye from that frosting. I'm guessing this to be around 1990...
07/10/2009 3:31 am
Hey Keith, Do you know what ever happened to the Dogwood? Wasn't she the ex CG buoy tender that Nelson Jones had fixed up as a charter/passenger boat? I think I heard at some point that she was sold to private ownership and was somewhere down South - Fla. Maybe? Naval architect Bill Preston had done the design work on her and was there at the Steamboat History Conference. He did a beautiful job with her and its a shame she didn't work out as a passenger boat.
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07/10/2009 10:59 am
Travis tells me that the DOGWOOD was sold to Capt. Scott Chotin and is down yonder on the Intracoastal Waterway in Texas. He saw her advertised for sale in a maritime magazine for $1,000,000+ recently. Nelson certainly had the boat fixed up quite nicely.
07/10/2009 12:58 pm
DOGWOOD
It was Capt. Roddy Hammett's intention to return to W.Va. to restore his Waverly home and to become the Captain of the DOGWOOD. Unfortunately fate didn't allow that.
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07/10/2009 3:01 pm
Another prospect for Capt. Roddy was when the Str. JULIA BELLE SWAIN was said to be headed for a new home port of Huntington, WV and Roddy was to be her new master. At the 11th hour, the plans changed and the boat ended up going to La Crosse, WI -- where she currently sits tied up and idle.
07/10/2009 3:39 pm
That could have been a prospect for Capt. Roddy; in fact, it was "the talk" that that was going to happen, after Doc and Roddy had announced their retirement from N.O. Steamboat Co., but before they had actually left. I had dinner with both Captains one evening around that time, and asked specifically about Roddy going Captain on the JBS at Huntington. He told me that that was the first he had heard of it, but in typical "Roddy" fashion said to me, "But it sounds so plausible, doesn't it?".
07/10/2009 3:47 pm
Roddy and the JBS
And you know the funny thing is that Roddy had never seen the JBS in person - but he would have loved its old-timey makeup. Just knowing she was a Dennis Trone creation was validation enough for him.
Whatever did happen to the deal, if there was one in the works, to bring her over to the upper Ohio? Bob Kalhagen was the only bidder at the auction, and there was only one other interested party there, from Michigan I believe. Several of us: Bob Anton, Vi Foley, Pat Welsh, and myself went up to LeClaire to watch the auction trip take place. Denny, being his gracious self, said: "Well as long as you're here, you might as well ride. Just stay out of the auction area." And so we got an unexpected hour's ride on the JBS and were trying to guess who the new owner would be...