Topic starter
02/04/2012 7:35 am
Here are some pictures from the late 1970's of a small sternwheeler my dad owned that he kept at Sunset marina in Rock Island, Illinois. His plan was to use the boat to push a passenger barge and do dinner cruises at the location where the Celebration Belle is now in Moline, Illinois. The boat was built in the late 1950's as the Belle of Warsaw (Kentucky) and remained there until the mid 1970's when my dad brought the boat to Rock Island. The boat has been widened and rebuilt and is currently docked behind Credit Island in Davenport, Iowa and is called the Salty Dog.
1. Captain John V.
2. Capt. John V. drydocked at Sunset Marina, 1978?
3. Billboard announcing plans for dinner cruise business, 1979/80?
Topic starter
02/04/2012 7:42 am
This is how the boat looks now as the Salty Dog. She was widened four feet and the cabin was rebuilt.
Topic starter
02/04/2012 7:56 am
More pictures of the Salty Dog at Credit Island (Davenport) in 2010. When originally built the boat was 54'x14', she is now 54'x18'. The boat is owned by an older lady who's husband died and left it to her. Apparently they don't know too much about boats, as the last time I saw the boat they had a tire hanging on the side as a fender...the tire was still on the rim!! Needless to say there was a pretty good dent in the guard where they had landed on it.
02/04/2012 12:40 pm
Salty Dog/Addie Mae
I've never seen this - is she on Enchanted Island or behind Credit Island in the slough? Was this dinner boat plan before or after he bought the ADDIE MAE and turned her into the BELLE OF ? Do you have any shots of her?
02/04/2012 12:53 pm
Thinking about buying her back and restoring her former luster? Looks like a nice boat.
Topic starter
02/04/2012 5:12 pm
Yeah Judy, he tried to start an operation with the "Capt. John" about three years before he began operating the "Addie May/Belle of Princeton" in Princeton, Iowa in 1982. I'm out on the boat now, but I do have some pics. of the A.M./B.o.P. at home.
Shipyard, I would love to get that boat and restore her. I think she looks a bit squatty with the extra width...I would love to get her and lengthen her 20', from
54' to 74'x18'. I've talked to the lady who owns the boat and she's a little...eccentric. She really has done very little with the boat, but says she will not sell it and wants to be set adrift on the boat after she dies and burn it. I decided she might not be the most stable person to try to negotiate with!!
Maybe something will change in the future.
Another boat I would like to get ahold of is the Tucker Marine built "Columbia", which is currently for sale for somewhere around $150,000.
02/04/2012 6:02 pm
Boat owner's career
"she's a little...eccentric. She really has done very little with the boat, but says she will not sell it and wants to be set adrift on the boat after she dies and burn it. I decided she might not be the most stable person to try to negotiate with!!"
Is she by chance a former officer of MAL????????????????
Topic starter
02/04/2012 6:48 pm
"Is she by chance a former officer of MAL????????????????"
Judy, I think it's quite possible that she was at the very least a motivational speaker at MAL...
1. I've got this sign hanging in my garage...just need a boat to hang it on.
2. Dad driving the boat out of Sunset Marina-1977/1978?
3. Dad and I on the Belle of Louisville-1996.
Topic starter
02/04/2012 6:56 pm
1. "Belle of Warsaw" on trip to Rock Island to become "Captain John V"-1977.
2. Meeting the Delta Queen between the stacks of the Captain John V.
02/04/2012 7:19 pm
I can tell you that the COLUMBIA is a right smart lookin' boat, and, when she was still tooling around Cincinnati harbor, she had one fine horn. When it was blown people would take note. I wonder if that horn is still on her, although it doesn't look like it from the photos.
I bet Bill Judd can tell you a thing or two about the COLUMBIA.