Topic starter
04/10/2012 9:47 am
I got permission from Robert Mayeux ("Bayou Bob") to post these recent photos of the derelict Str. MAMIE S. BARRETT, beached at Deer Park, Louisiana. Hard to believe it's been 11 years since I looked around this boat myself. Back then I tried to devise a plan to acquire it and have it towed north to my landing, for use as the wharfboat for the BARBARA H. But the project was going to be too expensive, and the (much closer) Str. LORETTA HOWARD became available, so it became our wharfboat instead. The elements are taking their toll on what's left of the Mamie.
Topic starter
04/10/2012 9:49 am
More Mamie S. Barrett photos...
Topic starter
04/10/2012 9:51 am
Last Mamie S. Barrett photo...
04/10/2012 1:41 pm
Memorable Mamie
Robert called the museum last week and we had a lively and delightful chat. He's planning a trip to this part of the river in the near future.
The poor old MAMIE is surely a sad sight and it's a testament to the Howard Shipyard (boat built here at Jeffersonville in 1921) that she survives, due largely to all the steel framing in her superstructure. When I last saw her (up close) in 2010 the pilotwheel and lazy bench were still visible in the pilothouse. I've made a number of visits to Deer Park beginning in 2001, but I have never ventured aboard, due to the caving decks, toppled smokestacks hanging by a thread, shards of broken glass hanging all over the place and the admonition of locals that the old steamboat is "crawling with cottonmouths"! I was down there in 2011, but the flooding Mississippi was already well above flood stage and the water was rapidly creeping up the levee, which meant the MAMIE was afloat back in the bayou. I could see parts of her showing through the moss draped trees, making a most memorable sight!
04/10/2012 5:43 pm
Seeing the MB like that certainly is a sad sight. The good news now about old restaurant steamboats is going on here in Covington, KY. The MIKE FINK (Campbell Transportation's JOHN W. HUBBARD, and then Ohio River Company's CHARLES DORRANCE) is having work done on her as this is typed. Painters are hard at work scraping the old paint off her boiler deck and the other night lights were burning down in her old deck room. For her the future bodes well.
04/10/2012 6:38 pm
Great to hear some GOOD news concerning old riverboats! Frank, did your dad serve as engineer on the HUBBARD/DORRANCE? I'm planning to do a future Old Boat Column in The Waterways Journal on that towboat.
05/10/2012 4:41 am
No, Dad never worked on the HUBBARD. He did work on her sisters JOHN J. ROWE/ORCO and was chief on the OMAR.
21/11/2012 9:13 am
Thanks for these updated photos. When were they taken?
I'm still hoping and praying to come up with a rescue plan for her, but I know that we're running out of time. Wish this economy would pick up again, that's been the biggest stumbling block of all.
Topic starter
21/11/2012 3:13 pm
The Mamie S. Barrett photos in this thread were taken on 9/26/12.
24/11/2012 12:14 am
Good luck coming up with a way to buy. I talked to Mayeaux three years ago about that boat. I was hoping the engines were still good enough to do something with and like Steve maybe use for wharf boat. The biggest problem he has with that boat is he doesn't actually own it. Compound that with Mayeaux wanting $250,000 for the Barrett. When he told me that first I started laughing, then I turned him down
How much did he tell you he wanted, Steve?
Topic starter
24/11/2012 8:19 pm
Mr. Mayeaux is a river enthusiast from the NOLA area. It was someone by the name of McMurray who claims owership of the Mamie's remains thru squatter's rights. Yes, it was something ridiculous, like $250K.
25/11/2012 3:54 am
Yes, McMurray is the guy who has been claiming squatters rights and is tough to deal with. You are correct.