Belle of Louisville is going on a "diet"

Does this mean the Belle will run more often in the off season months?

Like so many of us older steamboaters know, it's a lot easier to put it on than to take it off. Do the math. 1000 lbs. can only add up to about 5 average middle age American adults. Maybe the passengers should go on diets. Multiply the average number of passengers on the Belle by the 30 or so pounds that each of these passengers would do better off without (make that 100 lb for some of them) and you get some real tonnage. Maybe they should make the paddlewheel out of balsa wood or aluminum. We all know that most of our weight is in the "stern". As Harry Louden used to say about one infamous steamboater, "Look at that stern! You could hang three balanced rudders on it."

This subject merits a lot of input!

Heck, in a recent clean-up effort, we took 4,750 pounds of junk, sludge, railroad rails and rust out of the Barbara H's hull in November!

Hopefully this means the BELLE will run more in the in-season months too! I hope that wasn't my stern to which Cappy was referring. I remember when they were readying the PRESIDENT for casino service that Gary Frommelt had to weigh the wood from the dance floor as they removed it, so they could get enough off to compensate for the heavy casino equipment - and as mentioned previously, the heaviest item is not the slot machine array, but rather the coins. Now that most machines are becoming coinless with a paper receipt, I presume that is lightening the load on the boats. Is this affecting the draft of your boat, SS?

Twarnt your stern. I believe the recipient of that compliment is aware of it. Cappy was very up front with his comments. Nowadays Cappy would be wearing himself out hanging rudders on butts, especially if he went south. I can only imagine what he would have to say about this web site, which would be unpostable but funny. He was always baffled by the buffs and buffettes, but we all loved him anyway.

And speaking of Gary Frommelt and lightening things up: At one point in time, Capt. Wagner was trying to lighten up the DQ and had gotten rid of a bunch of old machinery parts in the usual fashion, by tossing them overboard. A young Gary was part of the maintenance crew and threw a fit when he found out these spare parts were gone. He confronted the Big E about this in such a way that the old man got angry, something you really didn't want to do. In other words, Wagner blew up. All those present when this took place were wishing they were somewhere else, for fear of fallout. But before it was all over, things had been patched up and all was right with the world, and Cap just laughed. He knew Gary was a good man, but he made his point.