Captain Harry Louden As a Young Man.

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Thanks for sharing Sam! Indeed, Cappy Louden was a dear friend and river icon to many of us. It was always a joy to sit on the pilothouse bench and watch a masterful pilot at work -- and get a stand up comedy routine as an added bonus!

He was my very favorite because he was so funny. I remember the night he was piloting on the Ohio, around Louisville. We were coming off the crest of very high water and we glanced off a bridge pier and struck a marina. Much later he was in Mom and Pop Tooker's cabin and he was saying, "I sunk those boats just like a torpedo". It was another of those, you had to be there moments. Another time he was being interviewed on a radio show and he was asked, "You must know and have traveled every inch of this river", which to my amazement he answered, "No" and the interviewer said, "You don't?" to which he replied, "I never spent much time on the bottom".One of a kind for sure.

Terrific! Real Cap'n Louden at his best. Thanks for the funny stories.

Oh, the nights we spent "cutting up" with Cappy! And Keith, remember the impromptu hymn sing one night with Capt. Louden, you, Lexie and me? It engendered applause from a passenger under the wing bridge!

Oh yeah, I fondly remember! Dave Tschiggfrie was part of the "pilothouse choir" too! Them wuz the days!

I think that little accident occured at Madison, Indiana. It was also a shut out fog. The schedule from Cincinnati, downriver, was good timing for fog round about Madison. Not so good for the pilot on watch, however.

Seems to me that happened in the summer of 1972 and the DQ was headed to Kentucky Lake. I remember Cappy giving a very detailed description of the accident --- in very colorful language!

One summer after the Madison Bridge incident in 1972, I was in the pilothouse with Capt. Louden on watch and we were passing Madison. I don't recall whether or not a passenger was with us at the time, but Cappy looked at the bridge and deadpanned: "You wouldn't think this boat would fit under that Indiana shore span, but by God, I had 'er there!" We spent three days at Jeffboat making repairs that trip, with special excursions for our passengers each day. And you know, there was a fair sized group who opted to stay on the boat and "supervise" repairs. And as I recall, very few complaints from anyone.

Thanks to you who knew the "bridge" incident was Madison. Betty Blake, as we all know, was a genius at marketing and using the press to great advantage. In this respect the rule was that Captain Loudon was never to give a live press interview or a print interview without me being there to "clean things up". This started when an interviewer once asked him about the boats' destination and he said, "Well I'm going to take the son of a b* up to Kentucky Lake, turn the son of a b* around and come home!" As all of you know, this was just the way he talked which is why he was so great but it didn't look good in the newspapers!

Mariam,

It's a good thing you never had to edit an interview with Capt. Howard Tate. I doubt that he ever was called on to give one or was interested in doing that, but you would have had your hands full there, too!

This is a great thread because everybody liked Harry Louden! Miriam is quite right about Cappy's colorful language. In 1979, I was on vacation from my regular job, and we had just dropped President Jimmy Carter off at St. Louis and were headed up the Ohio to Cincinnati. I was a Watchman at the time, and was in the pilothouse with Lexie and Harry. All of a sudden he says, "Lexie!" "Yes, Cap". "GIT your looong a** over here, and take-over this boat! I'm gonna git me some coffee.." Of course, nowadays, a comment like that that would be grounds for a lawsuit, but as for me, I was almost rolling on the floor! That was Harry for ya!

-Denny Hamilton-

Cap'n Harry was at the sticks on my first day trip on the DQ, July of 1970. He had his pipe firmly in place. 😎

For some odd reason, I woke up this morning with an improvised song in my head sung by Cappy Louden. He used to love to goad Capt. Gabe any way he could. He would sing a song to Capt. Gabe that went like this: "You're in the Army now, you're not behind a plow, you'll never get rich, you son of a b****, you're on the Delty Queen"!

Capt. Louden Pics

Now that I have a new scanner, I'd like to add these images to the above memories of Captain Harry Louden.

1. With pipe firmly in place, it could be some kind of Norman Rockwell look-alike piloting the boat! August 1979.

2. His normal piloting posture...

3 With his granddaughters on Labor Day Weekend cruise 1970. Those girls would be in their 40's now! Does anyone know where they are now?

-Denny Hamilton-

Two Pilothouse Legends

The attached shot of Harry Louden and Captain Wagner was taken on Labor Day 1970. We were upbound at California, Ohio enroute to a landing at Coney Island. Cap Wagner was on the radio asking if there was any downbound traffic. He was a robust 59 years old at this time, but he'd be gone from us by the end of the decade. I was still a teenager when I took this shot.
This was Coney Island's last day of operation, and it was the only time the DQ ever landed there. Ernie was glad to make the landing, and no doubt it must have reminded him of the hundreds of landings he made there in his younger days.

Denny Hamilton

*Wagner/Louden/'old' CONEY ISLAND*
Good morning Denny & Steamboating colleagues:
Great memories and picture above RE: Wagner, Louden and 'old' CONEY ISLAND with postings above adding more information.

I remember Louden well from the DELTA QUEEN and later aboard the then new MISSISSIPPI QUEEN on her initial shakedown cruise with invited guests. Admittedly, I didn't know Louden as well as all of you here, but did chat, pass the time with him when off duty. Louden, at the sticks of the MQ that first trip, brought gales of laughter [Somewhat nervous] to us up in her pilothouse with brass encrusted U.S. Coast Guard officers standing behind him looking over his shoulder. Louden, with a wry smile, twinkle in his eyes, turned and said aloud, "Hey, anybody here know what all of these switches and buttons are for?" The Coast Guard honchos seemed not amused. That followed the event when the MQ's calliope was played with jets of steam shooting up from the sink of a nearby service bar. The somewhat dour COKE BOTTLING CO. executive then in company ownership was also not amused sipping his martini.

The very last season of 'old' CONEY ISLAND had a large sign mounted on the little island in the middle of Lake Como with numbers clicking off each day down to the last day -0-. I was at the park that day in big SUNLITE POOL for the last hurrah remembering seeing/hearing the DELTA QUEEN down at the park landing.

If memory servers me now I thought the big, deadly tornadoes April, 1974 in Cincinnati blew across the Ohio River drawing up thousands of tons of water hitting, severely damaging Louden's home. Am I correct? That was a LONG time ago now.

R. Dale Flick
Northern shores of mighty Lake Michigan for the summer.