Dismantling the President

Dismantling

Those remind me of the 1945 photos on the St. Louis levee, of the dismantling of the CAPITOL and SENATOR... I hope they're marking the parts for regluing..... thanks for making the trip up there and posting the pix.

Sad

This is quite sad to see. I hope that the reassembling of the boat is successful, for we are losing, or potentially losing, too many boats this year.

This is Trifling. Four of the boats that I rode under steam power are being put to sleep well 3 have been put to sleep and one is on her way. The only ones still running that I rode are the Belle and the Natchez.

Indeed, the Streckfus brothers must be spinning in their graves! Thanks, Darin, for your excellent photos and for documenting this sad part of steamboat history.

Herewith are two images of the Strs. SENATOR and CAPITOL at the St. Louis waterfront in 1945. The cute little steam tug is the SUSIE HAZARD, long part of the Streckfus fleet until 1959, when she was stripped and scuttled behind a wing dam near Jefferson Barracks. Her HUGE pilotwheel was purchased by Miss Ruth Ferris and displayed in the River Room of the Missouri Historical Society for many years. Today it can be seen in the Pott Waterways Library at the Mercantile Library, St. Louis.

Keith, tell us about the Wharfboat the Suzie is tied off on. Two decks, was it a Diamond-Jo wharfboat? And if so, was it moved to St Louis from another location?

Capt. Blum did the Admiral and President flip flop back and forth between NOLA and St. Louis back in the early 70's and if so how often. I remember as a teenager going on friday and Sat. nite Rock and Roll cruises on both of these boats when they were still steam.

Jim: I really don't know about the provenance of that old double decker wharfboat, although it appears in MANY photos of the St. Louis riverfront. Doc Hawley told me that he was aboard it, in the early 1950's, shortly after he began working on the Str. AVALON, and that it was a virtual treasure trove of "steamboat stuff", including whistles, bells, calliopes, gingerbread, acorns, nameboards, etc. The wharfboat was later destroyed by fire. Too bad we can't ask Capt. Bill Carroll, but perhaps the answer to your question is contained in his collection, now at the Mercantile Library.

Herewith is a photo, taken from the Eads Bridge, which shows the stripped down hull of the railroad ferry ALBATROSS, soon to become the S.S. ADMIRAL. The old wharfboat is prominently in view and the towboat heading upriver is the Str. MAMIE S. BARRETT / PENNIMAN, of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and currently deteriorating on the bank at Deer Park, Louisiana.

Yeah, Mel, there was some of that. The PRESIDENT was really the New Orleans boat, and the ADMIRAL really the St. Louis boat, but there was a period there in the early-to-mid seventies that they did swap out. It may have only been for their conversion from steam to diesel. As I remember, the ADMIRAL went to NOLA for conversion, and the PRESIDENT went to St. Louis. We need Capt. Jim or Annie Blum to set us straight on this.

ADMIRAL in NOLA

Bob Reynolds;14026 wrote: Yeah, Mel, there was some of that. The PRESIDENT was really the New Orleans boat, and the ADMIRAL really the St. Louis boat, but there was a period there in the early-to-mid seventies that they did swap out. It may have only been for their conversion from steam to diesel. As I remember, the ADMIRAL went to NOLA for conversion, and the PRESIDENT went to St. Louis. We need Capt. Jim or Annie Blum to set us straight on this.

I'm not the Blums, but here's the info: the ADMIRAL was the first to be converted to diesel, in 1974. When the PRESIDENT was brought to St. Louis to be converted in 1978, the ADMIRAL went to NOLA to run the harbor cruises that winter. The ADMIRAL also spent considerable time up on the ways at Avondale in the NOLA harbor, due to some disputes.
Here she is going under the single spanned at the time GNO Bridge.

well I can proudly say I rode both boats as steam sidewheelers, of course the President many more times than the Admiral but I do remember them both before they were converted.

Oh and Bob and Judy thanks very much for the info. Also do they call the Admiral "the President Casino" now? and Robert can you email you mailing address to me please? I have something you might enjoy. Judy I already have yours thanks to that card you gave me 25 or 30 years ago lol thankyou for the pic of the Admiral.

Yes, the ADMIRAL has been known as the President Casino on the ADMIRAL, because the company name was President.

Thanks Judy, geez makes it kinda hard to keep up. Not being a gambler and leaving the river pre-casino days I am curious, has the Gambling industry helped or hurt the river? Personally I just felt it kinda tainted it and took away from riverboating as I knew it but thats just my opinion.

Keith,

If you look at the picture you have posted of the ALBATROSS...look at the location of the boilers. The ALBATROSS had her boilers in the side deck houses and railroad tracks across her mid section. Looks like they have already moved them out to the tracks, so to speak. Didn't they end up in the hull when she came out?

Those railroad transfer ferries has so many very unique features which no other type os steamboat had. Look at the strange hog chains she has to suport all the weight on the guards.

In the conversion pictures of the CINCINNATI to the PRESIDENT, they had a structure(the Dining room of the CINCINNATI) across the stern of the vessel that was utilized as a deckhouse through out construction. Looks like they tried to replicate this in that small deckhouse on the stern/starboard side. To think the Streckfus's were able to do all this work themselves, right at the landing! No town would allow such activity today! You'd be tarred, feathered, and run out of town for such an offencive action in this beautiful world we live in!

The PRESIDENT was always the more attractive boat to me. I never cottoned to the look of the ADMIRAL. I still would have loved to have been able to sail on her in her steam days with the calliope on the roof (although you would have NEVER gotten me up there to play it! way too high!). Perhaps I would share the love of her many other steamboat enthusiasts have.

~Travis~

Travis, I too am interested in the mechanics of how they took a car ferry and made it into an art deco piece. Like you, I never liked that "look" but then I was like Fred Way in his shoebox analogy re the MISS Q also. But I note that there is a LOT of enthusiasm for both on this board and that is good. It mostly comes from crew members and those who got to know them well. But I suspect that an "ordinary" crew member who shipped aboard either one required a period of adjustment both as to visual stimuli and methods of handling the two respective vessels. It always appeared to me that the MQ was designed by the front office with help from the hotel staff and turned over to the engineers to "make it go".

The Admiral went to NOLA the winter of 74/75 while the President came to St Louis for some upper deck replacing, Air conditioning and some interior refurbishment. They swapped again as Judy states when the President was converted to Diesel. The Admiral went to Avondale for Hull work in 1979 and never returned as an excursion boat.

The Admiral had Cat diesels mated to the M & T units (3) and cat powered generators. The President had Detroit Diesels mated to the M & T units (2). I do believe the generators were also of General Motors build as the owners calculated possible better service from GM in NOLA at the time.

The new owners of the Admiral are soft peddling the name Admiral and really pushing their new 500 million PLUS casino at the top of the hill. The Admiral as a Casino never had the best reputation as a glitzy casino in the St Louis market, however it has a niche market that MAY keep it on the St Louis Riverfront for awhile longer.

One St Louis area Casino has just laid off quite a few people in the last few days.

As I'm sure most on this board know the Casino Queen in East St Louis has been replaced by a land based casino and the vessel itself has been moved from the East St Louis Riverfront. The tunnel under the levee and Terminal Railroad Association tracks is to be filled in and sealed off and sternline telegraph has it that the original entrance building will be demolished.

Interesting enough is that the old CCC & STL (Big Four) freight house and office building was smashed flat to make room for the original Casino entrance building and parking lot entrance.

Jim, if you read one of the other postings on this site, there is news that the Pinnacle folks want to move the Admiral upstream. It also looks like they are wanting to replace it in a few years. Personally, I've always wondered why they retained the President name, when that company no longer exists.

Thank you Capt. Blum I was curious about that and couldnt quite remember. I just remember that I rode both boats in the early 70's.