River Pilots - Louden & Zimmer

Pilots

thanks for the list Bob. I am glad to have worked there back in the good ol days and wish I'd never left but I am proud to say that I worked with every one of those pilots except Howard Tate.

Rip Ware also said; Son do a good Job and make that cap'n proud of ya.
son how much you usually pay for a haircut?
Quarter less thyreeeee!!!
O'l Bob can un-hinge his jaws, I aint never seen anybody could eat like that.
Ahhhh Definitley!!
Bob whats for breakfast, well I'm having oatmeal
I dont care if y'all get mad at me cause I'm just trying to help y'all
Ahhhh, the blessed light o' day
The Port Capn tells the Capn what to do the Capn tells the mate, the mate tells the head deckhand, the headdeckhand tells the deckhands and then they all sit on their butts
Ya'll better Martinze this boat cause Capn Martins comin on tomorrow
And for Goodnes sake dont let nobody get nothin on ya!
Stuff like that

Frank X. Prudent;11260 wrote: C.W. Stoll had first class license from Ironton, Ohio down to Cairo, Illinois. On the Mississippi his first class license want to Memphis, and up the Wolf River to Patton-Tully's Landing. Tom Kenny had license for the Ohio River, and he did trip work on the DELTA QUEEN when she was running on the upper Ohio. I believe that he also had first class license on the Mississippi too.

When I was a night watchman on the DELTA QUEEN in 1983, Wally Blice worked on the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. (He was also on the BELLE OF LOUISVILLE for a time back in the early eighties, where he had a different Prudent to contend with down in the engineroom.) Capt. Blice was a Cracker Jack pilot who earned his stripes with The Union Barge Line. Ruben Williams had first class license on the lower Miss, and was another one of the pilots that I was up with in the pilot house.

To me the most amazing license to have was what very few dared to earn, the double enders. Harris Underwood was a licensed master, pilot and engineer. Denny Trone also had pilots license along with an an assistant engineers license. Seems to me as if Arthur "Red" Schletker was also a double ender.

Thanks for reminding me of Wally Blice, Tom Kenney, and Rueben Williams I worked with htem too

Carrol S Ware

well

Bob Reynolds;11231 wrote: What some newer riders of the DQ boats may not realize is that prior to the 1990's, First Class Pilots were required everywhere the boat went, not just below Baton Rouge. One cannot even obtain this license above Baton Rouge nowadays, but prior to the new rule, we had to have pilots who were licensed in their respective areas...just anyone with a Master's license could not take a big inspected vessel anywhere.

Capt. Harry Louden was an Ohio River Pilot, though he did have a bit of mileage on the Tennessee (about 25 miles) and the Monongahela (a couple of miles) in order to take the boat to Kentucky Lake and up to the landing in Pittsburgh. Capt. Art Zimmer was primarily an Upper Mississippi River pilot, though he did also run the DQ on the Ohio and the Illinois, where he had first class license. Zimmer also had license to down to Baton Rouge (but not below!) on the Lower. He did not like to go down there and rarely did. Zimmer's license also went up the Cumberland to Nashville. In 1977, we made a trip to Nashville, and Zimmer was the only pilot they could find who had the proper license. Capt. Tommy Utter had the license, but no radar endoresment, and the USCG would not let him stand a watch because of this, even though both the Master (Chengery) and the Mate (Rainbolt) held radar observer endorsements. Utter made the trip as a guest, more or less.

Below are some of the pilotage routes of the older pilots as I remember them:
C.S. "Rip" Ware: Lower Miss, Upper Miss, Ohio from Cairo to Parkersburg (though he never took the DQ above Cincinnati), Tennessee River. Ware also had license up the Red, Black and Ouachita Rivers to Camden, AR! He had the longest stretch of first class pilot license of any of the pilots on the boat in the 1970's.
Oren Russell: Mississippi from St. Louis to New Orleans and the Ohio from Cairo to Cincinnati.
Walter Karnath: Upper Mississippi. His license went to Cairo, but he never rode below St. Louis.
Bill Foley: Upper MIssissippi
Howard Tate: Mississippi from St. Louis to New Orleans. Tate's license also went up the Ohio as far as Louisville, but he did not like the Ohio and only made one trip above Paducah, to my knowledge. Often we would change pilots at Paducah; Louden getting off and Tate getting on, or vice-versa.
Fontain Johnson: Pittsburgh to New Orleans.
Ted Davisson: Lower Mississippi.
Bobby Powell: Pittsburgh to New Orleans and up to St. Louis on the Upper.
Ed Winford: Lower Miss.
Arthur McArthur: Lower Miss. and up to St. Louis
Charlie Fehlig: Mississippi River (Minneapolis to New Orleans)
Joe Gale: Lower Miss. and Ohio.

I'm sure others will chime in on other pilots I have neglected to metion. Ted, remember Rick Blackman? And Capt. Gilbert Manson used to take the boat down to Fort Jackson as Ted's partner.

The biggest thing for newer folks to understand is that we used to change pilots quite often when moving to new areas of the rivers.

well Robert when your works your Pleasure, Visibility's good and ya love everybody, man there aint nuthin better

Ft. Jackson

Hey Bob I remember working with Rick Blackman and Gil Manson and Gruesitch, a Crescent Pilot. I remember one of those Ft. Jackson trips where we started seeing Ice flows below Baton Rouge so Mac had us turn-to and head south to Ft. Jackson.

Mel, close that ******* door!

Ft. Jackson Trip

Mel ,
Although I had left the Delta Queen Company at the time , I was the other Pilot with Capt. mark Gruesitch , when he and I took the MQ to Ft. jackson and back . It was a great trip and especially enjoyed once again the company of my old steamboat friends !
Ted Davisson

Bob Reynolds;13424 wrote: Mel, close that ******* door!

Mel and Bob,

"I use to smell them gasoline fumes and now I'm smelling that per-fume!"
AND
"All you gals look like Marilyn Munroe to them deckhands on that towboat."
AND
announcement on the PA system when passing the Pillsbury flour mill up at St. Paul: "For all you mothers on board, this here's where you get your flour from."

Oh, to have these guys back and making announcements instead of the neutered, politically-correct banalities that inform but don't register in our consciousness or memory!

LoL Bob and Dave yes those really were the days and Ted saying " Ladies and Gentlemen if you will look off the Starbord side, thats on the right facing foreward, you will see a heard of Louisiana Deer". Cows, LOL

Yeah Ted I was Mate on that trip and I'll never forget it. It was truely interesting and fun.

Joe Gale Jr.

Wasn't Joe Gale Jr. in on one of those trips? Nobra 27 if I remember correctly.