another DIAMOND LADY pix

Hi Judy,

You're right the CRI was a nice boat. Whatever happened to her? She'd be another good candidate to re-incarnate as a excursion or overnight boat.

Aaron

Yea, U're Right ... twice.

Right on both accounts. The three gamlin' boats were posturing for position for the Blaser pic. And in spite of my own g-boat being a handsome beauty, the CRI was, perhaps, the prettiest of all the ones ever built. Now, SHE would be a beautiful overnite boat!

Look closely, and you may see me on the DL, as I had just started, as Mate, several days prior to this gathering... must have been in March, or April 1992.

The CRI

The CRI and her other vessels are somewhere on the Illinois River above Peoria, or at least that is to where they were towed last year when the dockside casino opened. the entourage includes the MATEUR(EFFIE AFTON), which kept its machinery; the OCKERSON whose dredging machinery was gutted for casino space; and the T.G. GEROW, which was the office boat. I haven't heard of any plans or possible sales. I do know the CRI was in pretty bad marine shape.

Judy, thanks for posting another picture, I have been anxiously awaiting it. I will be waiting (im)patiently for anymore you can find, I love them.

As far as the Casino Rock Island, she is a pretty boat, much more so before they extended the third deck, aft, that kind of screwed up her lines. As far as the quality of design/construction, the Diamond Lady and CRI aren't even in the same league. The DL was built to run and handled like a dream. The CRI has a slight edge aesthetically, but the Diamond Lady is ten times the boat the CRI is...in my opinion.

One thing I found strange about that picture, I was on the DL the day that happened and I recall the DL being on the Presidents port side with the CRI in her starboard. That is also how they appear in the painting by Michael Blaser, opposite how they appear in this photo. Maybe you have others showing them lined up in that order, or maybe after all these years of looking at the painting, it affected how I actually remembered the events.

I'll be interested to see if you have any other pics showing them lined up from Iowa: Diamond Lady, President, Casino Rock Island...

John

after the ball was over...

This picture was taken after the posing went on. They're headed back downriver here, and the painting was done of them going upriver in the order you named. This just happened to be a stray picture, not with my casino file. I'm packing for the Oregon/Tennessee game at Knoxville, so won't be finding anything else for a bit...

Judy, that was your photo taken below lock 15 from the Centennial Bridge, right? Seems you wanted us all down there for the "family photo", so we went down through the lock on our long (2 1/2 hour) cruise of the afternoon to join the other two for the photo session. Don, I think that photo had to be in May or June (I'm thinking June) of 1992.

Family photo..

Yeah, I wish I had that much power, Capt. Mike, but it was Michael Blaser's baby, doing that painting of all 3 boats. Capt. Joy was on the PRESIDENT, and she tipped me off about the gathering and kept me informed as you all got positioned. Now that I'm off the road for a bit, I'll look for some more pix of that era to post. Just think, you ran 2 1/2 hour cruises... that's what it should have been kept to, but no chance vs. casino companies...

Hmm, maybe it was Capt. Joy who called us requesting we make it below the lock on our afternoon cruise (That cruise was longer than the other cruises of the day which allowed us time to make the locking. We made 4 cruises per day back then) for the photo session. I remember we hurried the Diamond Lady down there for that reason anyway. You took the photos though, right?

gathering of the boats

Yes, I took pictures of the event, but not sure if this one is mine. I was on the Centennial Bridge, and even with zoom lens I don't know if I could have gotten this angle. Naturally I have no notation on the back of the photo either. I'm going right upstairs now to look for more pix of the occasion.

the DL from the Centennial Bridge

Apologies for not finding more pix, yet, of the gathering of the 3 boats. I can't find at least one casino boat album, and of course that's probably where they are. My sister leaves for Oregon tomorrow, so I'll do a more extensive search then, but here are 3 rather unusual shots, taken from the Centennial Bridge. Note in the 3rd one the lady on the wing bridge. I wonder if that is my cousin's wife, Martha Haut, who was an entertainer on the 3rd deck. Or is that a bartender's costume?

Red on the Head ...

The bow, as you can see, was painted Navy Grey- so my first thought was: "They still have the primer paint on the bow." This photo was taken within days of my joining the crew, but as soon as I got my feet firmly planted on-deck, my first job was to take it upon myself to paint the head of the boat a fire engine red, ah la DELTA QUEEN style. The crew loved the bright, exciting work space, and I thought everyone in the company would be as satisfied as was the deck crew, but the GM's only comment was, "You must really like red paint." I did.

After we delivered the boat to Bilouxi, I had to get off and upgrade my RIVERS license to INLAND, and when I returned from Houston Marine, in New Orleans, the bow was grey again; so I figured they really wanted the head grey; not red, and I made no further decorative attempts with the red paint on that end of the boat.

Judy, those are neat pictures! They bring back some fond memories of the good times we had. The lady in costume (hopefully a relative of yours) reminds me of the attention the company took regarding everyone's uniforms. They had their own dry cleaning business just to make sure everyone's uniform (costume) was in the best shape and condition. Capt. Don, you even inspired me to polish my black shoes every day (I've never polished my shoes EVERY DAY before)-----Say, maybe we should get a Diamond Lady reunion together?!?!

Thanks for the additional pictures, Judy, keep 'em coming!! That girl on the bridge wing was a cocktail waitress, I forget her name. The waitresses had two different outfits, one was the red/black pictured, we (the deck crew) called them "Red Robins". The other uniform was gold/black and we called them the "Bumble Bees"...we weren't very original with the nicknames.

If you notice, the brass searchlights in the picture and how polished they are, we were constantly shining the brass (search lights, bell, etc.). The bell on the DL, EL and GL was electronic, instead of pulling a cord you pushed a button which activated the striker. Several of the Captains/Mates found great joy in pushing that button and ringing the bell while someone was engrossed in polishing it, scaring them half to death. After being scared once or twice, we learned to take an extra rag to wrap around the striker to mute the sound when someone tried to ring it when you were polishing.

In the spring of 1992 after a winter of not being polished, the bell was quite tarnished and one of the deckhands was sent to polish it. He forgot his extra rag and the Mate on watch did the typical ring it during the polishing process. The bells on the Lady boats sat directly in front of the pilothouse, out of sight of the passengers. The bell was tarnished enough that it should have taken a good 45-60 minutes to polish, but after about ten minutes the deckhand got up and left...the bell was still tarnished, except for the word A--HOLE shining brightly back at the pilothouse. There are a lot of good stories from that boat considering the short time it was in Iowa.

John

After looking more closely at your picture Judy, I realized that was the gold/black "Bumble bee" dress, not the "Red Robin" red/black. I'm glad I can make out buoys and lights better than dress colors...

Capt. Don, I was one of your devoted minions that transformed the DL's head deck from gray to red. Also helped paint the stars on the capstans on the head and stern. When I went to Par-a-dice in July of 1992, I continued the star motif on the Par-a-dice (Golden Lady), we didn't paint the head deck red though, didn't quite go with the hideous purple trim they chose for the Par-a-dice.

I've put stars on every passenger boat I've been on since. I haven't done one on the towboats yet, but you never know when one might show up.

John

Diamond Lady leaving town pushing her landing barge, Lucky 7. Captain Charles Ken Murphy said the DL was the best towboat he had ever run.

Capt. John,

What a great picture...best excursion barge combo unit I have ever seen! Take that landing stage off the second deck of the landing barge an hang it on a mast ahead of the tow and put a big sign two decks tall on either side of it and you have a GREAT modern showboat tow!

Travis