Boatyards

Does it really have to be documented to get CG certification? I would assume that your boat is already registered with a state, so why isn't that good enough, especially for a six pack.

Here goes. If all works out, you should see a photo below that was taken from the old Dubuque-Wisconsin Bridge in 1894 showing the Diamond Jo steamer ST. PAUL on the marine ways at Eagle Point Boatyard. She is undergoing a major rebuilding here. Notice that she has no stacks showing, and there is a scaffolding adjacent to the main and boiler decks aft where they are rebuilding her paddlewheel housing. The steamer was shortened 9 years later at the same yard. Capt. John Killeen supervised the rebuilding of the steamer PITTSBURGH here in 1896 after her upper decks were demolished in the cyclone at St. Louis. She came out of that refit as the Diamond Jo Line's DUBUQUE. In 1919-20, Streckfus Steamers would once again rebuild her as their premier tramping excursion boat on the Upper Mississippi, the CAPITOL.

I know your pain, Dave... Franz had to walk me through Picasa step by step. I couldn't figure it out myself. Anyway, is this the picture? What ferry is that and what are the other boats near the SAINT PAUL?

Judy, your picture is very similar to the one I am trying to post, but no, it is not the same one. In your photo, the paddlewheel housing has already been completed, and in mine, it has not yet been enclosed, but is still under construction. My view is more of a broadside shot, but certainly had to be taken just weeks prior to yours. The ferryboat is the EAGLE POINT. Whooda thunk that we would both turn up a photo of the same boat being remodeled at two different points in the reconstruction process. Guess those 1894 shots must have been a popular subject for photographers. Part of the explanation may be that the Dubuque-Wisconsin Bridge was newly opened that year, and probably offered a unique perspective "aerial views" for shots of the Eagle Point Boatyard. I'm continually flabbergasted at what each of us can surface when we get our heads together on this message board. Simply amazing . . . Thanks for your help with my non-posting efforts.

I just happened to remember that pix because it is so interesting, and rare, I thought...

Whoops! Mea culpa -- the date on the Eagle Point Boatyard photo with the ST. PAUL being remodeled is 1903, not 1894 as I posted above. It was in that year that the after 24 feet of the hull was sawed off, and that's what is being shown apparently in Judy's photo and in mine. The Eagle Point Bridge (Dubuque-Wisconsin Bridge) didn't open until 1902, so those photos couldn't have been taken in 1894, which was the first time that the ST. PAUL underwent major renovations at Eagle Point. I should have checked the date that was written on the side of my photo first before posting.

Missouri River boat yards

Many of the boats built on the Missouri River were small craft built on the bank either one or maybe two. The Heckmann boys built one or more at their mill on the Gasconade River and at Hermann. Many of the local ferries were local built. The Corps of Engineers operated a Boatyard at the mouth of the Gasconade River starting at least in the 1910's. The Geo. G. Keith was built there in 1914. Up river a Leavenworth , Kansas was the Missouri Valley Shipyard Inc. This yard built small work boats and went Bankrupt in the 1980's. The last boat off their drydock was the Belle of Brownville, just hours before the US marshals took over. That left the two Brownville boats with no place short of St Louis to be pulled for hull inspections so they built a private ways and sled at Brownville.

During WWII the US boatyard at Gasconade built landing craft. as did Missouri Valley, a set of ways in South Omaha, and another at Blair, Neb. The Blair yard held on for a while
after the war and built one or more towboats.

Carl Jones Missouri River Historian

The Peterson & Haecker yard at Blair built four really fine U.S. C.G. cutters, actually towboats, in the 1940's. Most rivermen today can relate to those four vessels. They were the Fern, Fox Glove, Sumac and Lantana. I see the Lantana working near Chattanoga frequently. One of them is pictured in a current ad in the Waterways Journal.They were built when the Coast Guard still really knew about the rivers.

Bill
Thanks. I likely could have found the name of the Blair boat yard, but it would have taken some time. My notes on the subject are 20 year old so I don't remember always the details. The Lantana was built in 1943 and repowered in 1968. the Sumac was built in 1944. The Fox Glove or Foxglove was sold and in 1978 she was owned by Bernard McMenamy Contractor Inc. of St. Charles, Mo. The Fern must have been built in 1945 as the Waterways Journal ran a story on her in Dec 1945.

Carl Jones

More on the LONE STAR (part one)

In response to Judy's picture of the towboat LONE STAR next to the W.J. QUINLAN in the Kahlke Yard, I thought I'd post a little history on this vessel and a few pics.

The LONE STAR was built at Lyons, IA in 1868 for Capt. Sam Mitchell who ran her briefly between Davenport and Buffalo, IA as a packet. She was a 27 ton, stiff-shaft, wood-burning sidewheeler. Hull dimensions: 68.4' x 19.3; x 3.2.' After 1870 she was used as a rafter/towboat and for occasional passenger service.

In November 1876, Mitchell sold her to Goss & Co. of Davenport, IA for $1,050 and was converted into a regular towboat. I'm not sure where the conversion took place - perhaps at the Kahlke Yard. Goss & Co. used her as a sand dredge – reportedly towing a sand barge and digger.

In 1890, Goss & Co. had the LONE STAR enlarged and rebuilt at the Kahlke Yard in order to accommodate the mounting of the sand pump in the engine room. At this time she was reconfigured as a sternwheeler. In 1900, Goss & Co. became Builders Sand and Gravel Co. and they continued to use her in the sand business. BS & G had the Kahlkes completely rebuild her again – adding new high pressure boilers and converting her to coal burning. Her smokestacks were also moved forward of the pilot house. She also may have received newer engines.

Although she was rebuilt from the original sidewheel LONE STAR and she kept the same name, she was re-documented and given a new number. The practice of rebuilding vessels in this manner was fairly common practice as it provided owners with the opportunity to have the vessel re-documented, allowing less expensive insurance rates as well as longer periods of time between time-consuming safety inspections.

More on the LONE STAR (part two)

From 1902 to 1905 she carried a license as a passenger carrier (probably for occasional excursion business) and from 1906 – 1921 she was licensed for "Inland Towing." In 1922 she was again enlarged and rebuilt at the Kahlke Yard. New measurements: 90' x 24.5' x 4.1.' Crew quarters consisting of four cabins were also added behind the pilot house. The 340 hp steam engines (12's x 5') were probably transferred from the old vessel. She was again re-enrolled, given a new number and continued her towing duties for BS & G until about 1957 when her hull began leaking badly. She was again taken to the Kahlkes and was extensively reconditioned and had her hull re-planked (see Judy's photo).

The LONE STAR continued her towing duties until she failed a USCG inspection in 1967. The end of the LONE STAR's working life came on August 28, 1967 when she was cooled down for the last time. The crew on her last trip was: Glenn Johnson (master and pilot), William Horlas (engineer), Mrs. Eleanor Johnson (cook), Louis Chapman and Dick Schmidt (firemen and deckhands).

The LONE STAR had an interesting and varied career for a common work boat. She began in 1868 as a small sidewheel wood-burner in the packet trade, then used as a raftboat and towboat. She was converted into a towboat in 1876, then rebuilt and enlarged in 1890 into a sand-sucker/towboat and re-configured as a sternwheeler. In 1900 she was modified and changed to coal-burning, rebuilt and enlarged again in 1922, then reconditioned again in 1957.

For 99 continuous working years she carried the name LONE STAR and outlasted all of her contemporaries. She currently resides out of the water at the Buffalo Bill Museum in Le Claire, IA. I was up there about ten years ago and took a few pictures. I fear that she is now in worse shape than when the pictures were taken.

Thanks for the LONE STAR info. Jerry. There are a number of very good pics of her working in David Plowden's book "Farewell to Steam".

If you go to see the LONE STAR, I recommend eating at Sneaky Pete's Cowboy Steaks, just up the hill. Men, don't wear a tie if you go in. Just trust me....don't!

Judy: I think that the square plate fastened to the hull was/is , as you say, a "zinc". But it is there to combat corrosion. I don't know but what it might have some effect on marine growth, but I believe that its primary purpose is to be a "sacrificial lamb" in the electrolytic corrosion cycle (two dissimilar metals connected by an electrolyte...the river) Heavy metals are often put into underwater (bottom) paint to inhibit marine growth because it is toxic to it. Wood ships were often sheeted with copper for that purpose. I SEE AFTER I WROTE THIS THAT BRUNO COVERED THIS SUBJECT QUITE WELL...