Anyone for a houseboat?

Jean mary

That sure beats renting a houseboat, but I'm a little short on cash this month... Didn't we have a discussion on here a while back about the JEAN MARY?

I remember reading in a book from 1985 (from some Society of something to do with paddlewheelers). Man, I really wish I was home. I know right where it is, and could easily scan and put the article up here. The article said that this vessel had traditional steam engines (pitmans, crank arms, all that jazz). Being that was almost 25 years ago, things have definitely changed. Nice find, Travis!

Wait a few years...

Matthew Dow;19255 wrote: I remember reading in a book from 1985 (from some Society of something to do with paddlewheelers). Man, I really wish I was home. I know right where it is.

Obviously you haven't sunk into the state of dusty pilefiles of memorabilia into which your elders have descended....

Judy,
As the title of your post reads, wait a few years. I'm sure someday I'll be lost in a sea of things. But for now, my collection is very limited, so it's not hard to find 🙂 One thing that has made my "collection" easier is having a digital camera. I know you have discovered it recently, Judy. It's so much easier to find things on the computer than leafing through books. Trust me, I love old photographs, and I was delighted to pine through a couple of them when I stayed at your place before the SOP trip, but it just saves so much space. On the downside, the computer can't store things like flags, pins, magnets, ect...

This one is a little too large for our canal. . .and if we put her on the UMR don't know what we would to with her when winter comes.

Seriously, if this is the same boat referred to in the following link, there has been lots and lots of work done. staugustine.com: the oldest city's home on the Net

a mini DQ

It certainly has an interesting history, and I think I could survive aboard it...I wonder what they did to it after the sinking, because the price has gone up from $350,000 to $499,000. I presume when it 'sank', it didn't get covered with water very high. It isn't very clear in the article, but I take it Debbie Reynolds had never been on it before the sinking. Those pictures on the Ebay page show the luxurious appointments. One question, Travis: it shows just staterooms and a kitchen. Somewhere it mentions that staterooms were on the second deck until 2004. So is there a public or lounge area somewhere?

Judy,

The JEAN MARY is quite a little boat. She has precious little freeboard and wets your feet when a mosquito flutters across her bow. Her lay out is the same from the video I saw. She has a living room forward on the Main deck with a fireplace that vents into the single stack. there is plenty of room up here for the extensive library that seems to still be there AND a piano (incase the new owner needs entertainment). Aft of this is the Engine Room (originally the boiler room, which is set on the hull cross members and two decks high). It is across the boat...with entrances on both sides. Behind this is the Dining Room (seats 20) and the kitchen. The Aft Engine Room is behind this. The Boiler Deck is laid out with state rooms on either side, each sleeping 2 people, total of 8 people. The Owners suite is a double on the stern overlooking the paddlewheel. From what I see, it is all still there like it always was. The Pilothouse is forward on the Boiler Deck and features a 43-note Tangley calliaphone on the roof. That is where I came in. I programed a TON of music for the Douglass's who owned her in the mid-90's. She was sold in 2000 to an operator in St. Augustine, FL who chartered her out. When this didn't work Debbie Reynolds bought her. She also sane on the Upper Ohio in the late 90's when she rammed a underwater obstruction and holed herself. The Douglass's spent a fortune on that rebuild. I got to make more recordings, too!

She'd be a perfect home away from home for some steamboater out there! They could charge some of the other steamboaters to ride from time to time and we could all have a blast out there! Of course, I would run to Capt. Alan Bates with the request for plans for a remodeled hull, a new bow (higher and longer....pleassssse!) and a little more freeboard to make sure she has a bright and DRY future ahead!

Travis

Matt,

She was steam...all that stuff is gone and she has hydraulics on the wheel now. Last time I saw her, she had a chain-drive paddlewheel. seems every owner has had a hand in the propulsion system and refined it. Even the wheel is not the original (and I hear this one works better than the original...so at least this was a good idea!).

This is the quintessential river home for one of us...now who will show up with it next spring?

Count me out for now...those silly lottery officials keep pulling up the wrong numbers! I

Travis

Well, it's too bad that they converted her from steam. Would have been nice to see steam comin from that calliope. And I'm afraid I don't have 500,000 dollars either being as I'm in college. I literally have 6 dollars in my wallet right now haha. The new owner will have one hell of a boat though!

Matt,

That calliope is a Tangley...the solder that holds those whistles together would let go under steam and have the whistle bells flying through space like Civil War schrappnel!

Six dollars, huh? Perhaps you could buy stock in the ownership and you'd have a .006% ownership with that! LOL!!!

Actually, the idea of a group of people forming a limited partnership in the boat and hiring a small crew to maintain her isn't a bad idea...if you could find about 10 people who'd all agree enough to make it happen smoothly.

Travis