Topic starter
12/05/2009 6:00 pm
Franz has duly noted that today marks the 36th anniversary of the passing at age 97 of Capt. Jesse P. Hughes, longtime pilot with Greene Line Steamers and who finished his 65 year career aboard the Str. DELTA QUEEN. Capt. Jesse was an amazing man, not only an excellent river pilot but also a skilled musician, photographer and artist, who painted not only steamboat pictures, but did the fancy shaded lettering on many boats as well as doing the huge signs atop the Greene Line wharfboat.
Capt. Jesse went on the river in 1891 as a potato peeler and second cook aboard the T.N. BARNSDALL, later becoming pantry man and cabin boy. In 1896 he signed on the H.K. BEDFORD, captained by Capt. Gordon C. Greene. Capt. Jesse's first issue of pilot's license was in 1897 and his first official watch was aboard the Str. ARGAND. Capt. Jesse stood countless watches aboard the GORDON C. GREENE and DELTA QUEEN until his retirement in 1962.
Capt. Jesse was a very kind man and it was a privilege to have known him, if only for a few short years. In the last several years of his life, his daughter "Miss Helen" Prater hosted birthday parties for him aboard the BELLE OF LOUISVLLE in the captain's room on the Texas, replete with cakes featuring a steamboat and the company of good river friends. Capt. Jesse was still very much "with it" and told me about some of his river adventures, including playing the calliope on the CRICKET when she journeyed up the Big Sandy River in the region where the Hatfields and McCoy's feuded! Capt. Jesse kept detailed daily logs for many decades and those are now in the collection of the Inland Rivers Library at Cincinnati.
A long and two shorts of the whistle in tribute to an extraordinary riverman!
12/05/2009 6:17 pm
Aboard the BELLE
and here is a picture Keith took of Capt. Jesse aboard the BELLE in the Captain's Cabin. There are 4 Captains in this picture: C.C. Hawley, C.W. Stoll, Capt. Jesse, and in the mirror the future Capt. Gabe Chengery. Keith took this on the BELLE in June 1972.
13/05/2009 6:25 pm
Captain Jesse was the "seeing-est" man I ever knew. He had an eye and mind for detail that few, if any, could match. He told me about extending his license up the Tennessee River. When he drew the chart he included a field occupied by mules, so he drew those mules. The examiner asked him why he drew them and he told him, that's what was in the pasture and that he would remember the place because he saw them there. The examiner laughed and accepted the drawing.
I spent a happy half-hour with him in a gentle rain one time at Marietta while he described a banana tree that grew outside his window out there in Hawaii. I was well-acquainted with every vein in every leaf when he finished.
The big thing about Captain Jesse, though, was his niceness. Helen Prater is just like him in that respect.