Topic starter
23/11/2006 4:17 pm
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! Just reading the Commercial Appealhere in Memphis, and came across the following in "50 Years Ago Today":
"The last of the Mississippi River packet boats will start her last voyage down the Big Muddy soon, headed where all good packet boats deserve to go -- a glamorous retirement in Florida. The Gordon C. Greene -- as a river museum -- will become a reminder of the great days when cotton was king and steamboats raced 'round the bends. James Walden and Bryan Anderson, partners in Memphis' Marine Service Co. announced yesterday they have formed the Sternwheeler Co., Inc., with a group of Southern businessmen and have bought the river boat for $55,000. Mr. Walden said he got the idea of making the boat into a tourist attraction after moving to Florida about six months ago."
As we all know, this venture did not pan out as Jim Walden had hoped. Jim Walden also had Helena Marine Service, and provided Capt. Charlie Fehlig (mentioned recently in another thread) with the required trips up the Arkansas River to extend his First Class Pilot license uo the Arkansas in order to take the DQ up to Little Rock for the first time in 1971.
23/11/2006 9:42 pm
afterlife of the GCG
Not necessarily in order, but the places the GCG or River Queen went after she was retired as a steamboat in 1952: Owensboro, Ky., across the river from Hannibal; Florida; the slot above the Gov.Nichols wharf in New Orleans; St. Louis. Did I miss any? Was she successful at any of these places?
23/11/2006 10:33 pm
If not mistaken, she first went to Portsmouth, Ohio as a dormitory for workers at the big Atomic Energy plant, just north of Portsmouth.
23/11/2006 10:50 pm
Judy;
GCG (aka River Queen) was very successful as a restaurant boat here in St. Louis. Somewhere in the slide collection, I have a full set from the day she sank until there was no more.
27/11/2006 6:57 pm
Yes, indeed, Cap'n Bill! I have a photo of the boat, taken in the Louisville and Portland Canal, as she was being towed down to Owensboro by an Ashland Oil Company towboat -- and the name on her engineroom bulkhead is SARAH LEE, from the brief time she was at Portsmouth. At Owensboro she became THE STERNWHEELER, at which time she was featured in the movie, THE KENTUCKIAN. During her short stay at Bradenton, Florida and later at New Orleans, Hannibal, MO (actually she was moored on the Illinois side) and St. Louis, her name was RIVER QUEEN until she sank in December, 1967 and was scrapped in early 1968.
28/11/2006 1:33 am
Actually, her bones are still in St. Louis below the ADMIRAL and I took a picture of them just the week before last from the MISSISSIPPI QUEEN.
28/11/2006 4:09 am
Travis Vasconcelos;2445 wrote: Actually, her bones are still in St. Louis below the ADMIRAL and I took a picture of them just the week before last from the MISSISSIPPI QUEEN.
I need some help looking at this picture, I can see the covered hopper and the gon's passing on the tracks above, but what should I be seeing closer to / in the water?
28/11/2006 4:25 am
Look to the bottom of the center of the picture and you will see her framework of the main deck of the boat.