Name That Steamboatman

Hey, Capt. Don,
Sounds like 'Eat um up' to me. If I am correct, you may give my prize to another. I feel I should disqualify myself since I was Assistant Purser and was involved with paying the crew. Therefore I have the advantage of knowing 'real names' of the crew. If I am incorrect, I stand embarrassed!

Eat-em-Up

Richard,

Of course. You, Mary, and I were all working together on the DQ in 1965. You are also correct-- Mr. Fleming Moore was better know as "Eat-em-Up", a legendary member of the Engine Room crew, under Chief Cal Benefiel in those days. Whenever anything broke, down in Chief Cal's domain, (and things DID go amiss quite often) the first thing he'd yell was, "Go get Eat-em-UP!" You win Round One. A genuine steamboat relic from the Great Big Collection will be added to the booty of the next victor, as per your request.

Mr. Moore earned his unusual moniker when he and several other members of the QUEEN's crew took repast at an all-you-can-eat smorgasbord, as buffets were known when they first appeared on the American eating scene. He ate so many pork chops, so I was often told, that he had to be rushed to a hospital emergeny room for, shall we say, "treatment". The crew, always unmerciful at another's misfortune, stuck Fleming with the unflattering moniker that stayed with him for the rest of his days. "Eat-em-Up" was a fine steamboat man, and in another age might have been the Chief Engineer.

Round Two: Who, besides Richard, knows the nickname of another DELTA QUEEN legend of just a few years later, Mr. Lewis Bayless? This is such an easy one that the story telling how Mr. Bayless acquired his better-know tag must be included to win the double steamboat whammy.

Sorry, Sam, you are speaking of an era which is a little too early for me. However, I DO have a request of you and/or anyone else who can help me on this one: An oiler/engine room maintenance man/fireman named "Vern". I had heard he'd even been with the Greene's when the GORDON was running. He would show up from time to time to work in the engine department, then disappear for several months or a year. He was the fireman on watch during the filming of the Merrill-Lynch commercial at Nauvoo (with the smoke) that I related a couple of months ago. Anyone know Vern's last name or anything else about him? Vern was bald-headed and had the largest beer gut I have ever seen.

Tom Tallon

Bob,

Sorry, but all my sources have turned up a big, fat ZERO on your Vern. I do remember "Happy Jack" Carter who fit the same physical description, but he was a on-again, off-again Watchman on the AVALON. Tom Tallon, perhaps? Now there was an interesting case...

Tom Tallon was a engine room Striker in the Kenny P. Howe, Jr. era. Tom was a regular customer of the water-downed bootleg booze that was easy available back then. Whenever we were making locks, a half-pint of T's Boone Country ("aged in used cooperage for not more then thirty-days") often was often found stashed in the coils of line outboard the engine cylinders. Tom used to say that he was Canadian fighter pilot before the US entered WWII, and he had sent five German planes down in smoke, qualifying him as an fighter ACE, but after Pearl Harbor he had to make the choice of staying with the Canadian Air Force, and losing his citizenship, or coming over to his own country's forces. He chose the latter.

Tallon then found himself in the engine room of a US merchant ship where, one day as he was oiling a pump while standing beneath a skylight, a torpedo struck the side of his ship and the force of the explosion blew Tom skyward, through the skylight, and into the sea. He lost everything, including his papers that proved all that he was saying was true.

"I've been writing to Washington, and when I get a copy of my records, I will have enough sea time to sit for my (engineer's) license."

"Right, Tom." a deckhand added, "Have another snort."

One afternoon, soon after the Purser had picked up the boat's mail, Tom Tallon came running and shouting to where several of us were reading our own mail, "They found them! They found them!"

Sure enough, the government found, and sent forward a copy of Tallon's war records. He had been a Canadian Pilot and an Ace. He did serve time aboard a merchant ship, was torpedoed and blown through the engine room skylight and into the sea. Tom had been telling the truth all along.

Tom Tallon's life changed dramatically soon after the day the mail arrived. He straightened him up and the bottles of bootleg booze disappeared from the coils of line; he sat for, and was awarded his Assistant Engineer's ticket and served as an Assistant on the DELTA QUEEN until he left for the Great Lakes where he worked on ore-carrying freighters. And when Tom returned home at the end of the long lake season, he was never seen around town without his engineer's cap tilted jauntily upon his head.

Regrettably, Tom did not see very many seasons upon the lakes, and he died after only a couple of years, but he did live long enough to see the fulfillment of his dreams. And what more could a person ask of life but that?

Good story, SAm! Maybe Capt. Gabe will come in and tell us about Vern. That WAS his real name, I just can't remember his last name. Others (Lexie?) on her knew him, too. MAybe someone' mem ory still is good enough to pull that name out of a hat. It's hell to get old!