Happy Birthday Capt. Wagner!

Break out the Hudepohl and Limberger cheese!

Denny, it's good to see you posting. Quit lurking and join the fray!

100 Years? Impossible!

I was on the AVALON with Captain Wagner when he turned 49. One-hundred years? Sounds impossible.

It's kinda painful to see pics of Big Cap. He was larger than life, it seemed, and there has been no one else who ever filled those big shoes after he died on my birthday, October 11, 1979.

I miss Captain Wagner terribly and keep a picture of him in the pilothouse of the GV2 to remind myself when I wonder: "What would Wagner do?"

Denny, those are great snapshots of the Skipper. What did you do on the DELTA QUEEN?

Bob: You forgot the Bermuda onion ... again. :{)

Bob et al: Cap would approve of the fact that you can still get limberger cheese and Hudepohl (reintroduced I understand). You really hafta look to find good limberger but I did find some the other day. I never met the big Cap but I was likely a pax when he was mate on the Island Queen II...and, Sam, that was likely over 65 years ago. To those who know: in photo number 3, what is that bottle shaped thingy with the spoked handwheel behind Big Cap and against the stack??

Cap'n Walnut, that's the steam line to the whistle. The wheel is the cut-off valve for the whistle. It is all well insulated (insulation containing asbestos, no doubt!).

If you look a little to the left of that on the stack, you can see the right-hand side of the big letter "G", for "Goodness" as Robert Davis used to say!

I'm sorry you never got to meet the Big Captain. He was truly a legend in his own time. To those who were not fortunate enough to meet him, your lives are poorer for it.

A monumental centennial indeed! I don't know of a single individual who ever met or worked for Capt. Wagner that wasn't a far better person for it. Attached below are two more views of the Big Cap. The first captures a familiar scene on Captain's Dinner night with Cap playing the bones, backed up by Mate Gabe Chengery and Riverboat Ramblers Vic and Mom & Pop Tooker and Pete Eveland. The second picture was taken in the summer of 1948, one of the rare years that Cap was not on the river. This was taken in Dayton, KY, while Cap managed his brother's tourist court during the months immediately following the fire and explosion of the ISLAND QUEEN. The next year Ernie Meyer talked him into returning to the river as mate on the AVALON. The other person in that photo is Sterling Mattox, a good friend of "Big Ernie" from the Newport, KY area, who worked with Cap in a steel mill in the Cincinnnati area prior to WW II. This is one of the few photos I've ever seen of what Cap looked like during his ISLAND QUEEN years.

A long, heartfelt salute to one of the greatest Roof Captains who ever lived. We all are so fortunate to have known this man whose heart matched every inch of his physical stature -- truly, a man among men.

Limburger in Prairie du Chien

One Aug. 4th when i was a passenger Louise Feilhauer sent me into Prairie du Chien to buy some limburger cheese for Capt. Wagner's party, since she couldn't leave the boat. Well, the city of PduC is about an mile from the landing, and I walked back that HOT summer day carrying that awful cheese - but considering for whom it was intended, it was well worth the stink.
On my first DQ trip, Aug. 22, 1973, I was lounging on the stern of the Sundeck as Captain's Dinner was about to begin. A large figure hovered over me, and bellowed, "What? You're not coming down to my dinner?" I was terrified. It was the first time I had talked to Capt. Wagner, and I stammered that I would rather stay out on deck and enjoy the sunset. He laughed and said, "So would I". Whew, what a relief! Bob, you remember the time I walked that ladder in Muscatine in the middle of the night, delivering cookies and cigars? It was great being a passenger and getting to know Capt. Wagner, but I sure wish I could have been a crew member under him too. One of the misconceptions perpetuated about him was that he was a pilot - he was a true roof captain, as David called him, as he had not one mile of pilot license. Its hard to believe this is the centennial of his birth, but thanks Dennis for pointing that out. Here's a chorus of Down Yonder on the calliope and Alabama Jubilee on the bones for the Big E!

Judy Patsch;22689 wrote: Bob, you remember the time I walked that ladder in Muscatine in the middle of the night, delivering cookies and cigars?

I'll never forget it! It was a sight to see, too. Those were the days, weren't they?

More Capt. Wagner Memories

Shipyard, to answer your question about what I did on the DQ, here's my brief DQ resume: All jobs were during the Summertime Breaks from my schooling at the University of Cincinnati.. 1970-passenger on Labor Day Weekend cruise, Cincy to Oxbow Bends( cost $130 ). 1971- Deckhand, 1972- Porter, 1973- Lounge Porter, 1974- Tour Purser.

My last job as Tour Purser was the shortest. I got a call from Amtrak in Sept 1974, for a job in Sales, and since trains were my first love, I went with them. It turned out to be a career of 25 years, and great fun. But I had my regrets about leaving the boat for many years afterward.

In 1978, I asked Jim Blum if I could work on the boat during my 1979 vacation at Amtrak. He said that he'd find me something to do. A few short weeks from my August 1979 vacation, President Carter announced that he and his family would be riding with me from St. Paul to St. Louis. It was a miracle that I got rehired for a 2-week stint on the very day that the President boarded. What a trip THAT was!

Back to Capt Wagner Memories:

1. Remember this placque in the pilothouse during the Wagner years? Does anybody know where this is today?
2. At McAlpine Lock, 1971.
3. Even at a distance, you could tell it was Cap!

I'll never forget laying in my bunk in the Purser's room in the old officers quarters late at night as the boat coasted into one of the old Ohio River locks. All was quiet and then would come the Big E's booming voice from the wing bridge....."Yhoo Buttermilk....Yhoo Red Rooster" to be answered by "We's here, Capt'n".
He was truly an unforgetable man.

Thanks, Denny, for your fine postings observing Capt. Ernie's 100th birthday. Great to see you FINALLY posting on this forum and I hope you'll favor us with more of your writings and excellent photography! As Dave Tschiggfrie wrote, ALL of us who had the privilege of working for Capt. Wagner are better people for the experience. A long and loud whistle salute to his memory.

I was Watchman on the DQ at Muscatine when Judy "walked the ladder" as we took on water in the wee hours of the morning. Bob Reynolds was Mate and I seem to recall that the two of us "knocked off" the can of chocolate chip cookies that was designated for the purser's office. Sorry, Ted! Later, we enjoyed another can up in the pilothouse, with hot coffee, as we steamed up the Mississippi that chilly autumn night. Capt. C.S.Ware was the pilot on watch, but he didn't join us in consuming the cookies -- he had a banana, so's to get his "tassium! Those were wonderful times, never to be forgotten.

Thanks, Keith, for the kind words and your welcome. You always have been quite the gentleman.. Thanks!

I don't know if my writing skills are my strong suit, but as time goes by and memories begin to fade, I sure am glad that I was into photography! I was a working crewmember for sure, but I can't deny that I always was a FAN of everything about stamboating. I didn't pull-out my camera only for the big events. I always liked to document the "everyday life" aboard the boat, so this means that I have a fair share of "people shots", and some of these people are regulars in these forums.

Here's some samples:
1. Capt. Don Sanders/Shipyard Sam. Summer 1972
2. Bob Reynolds and his crew with the presidential flag. Jimmy Carter cruise, August 1979.
3. Capt. Harry Loudon, looking like Norman Rockwell. 1979

Ray Wanstrath

Thanks for the shots of a memorable summer of long ago. Behind me, looks like Ray Wanstroth, one of the finest deckhands who ever worked for me on any boat. He had the makings of a Mate or eventual Captain had he stuck with the river; although he married the daughter of a VP of the Ohio River Company. Last I heard of Ray he was a carpenter for the 5th/3rd Bank Corp. in Cincinnati making counters and remodeling their properties.

For some strange reason, Captain Wagner never cared for Ray, and it may have been on the trip this photo was taken, that the steering went out on the DELTA QUEEN as it was going under the Pig's Eye Bridge, in St. Paul. Without being told, Ray grabbed a heavy line and leaped onto the bridge's protective cribing, climbed it like a ladder and snubbed off the line; there-by, possibly, saving the boat. For that I made him the Head Deckhand, but when Cap returned, he made me bust Ray back down to a regular joe.