President update feb. 16, 2010

and a few more

The photographer reports that the skeleton of the calliope is still there. The whistle was removed and stored at the time of dismantling, so it presumably is in safe hands somewhere...

Thanks, Judy, for sharing those gut wrenching views of a once proud steamboat.

I was just thinking of some of the old riverboats that have burned, sunk, been dismantled, virtually abandoned or have rotted down since I became a steamboat buff in the 1960's. Weep, indeed!

RIVER QUEEN (ex- Gordon C. Greene / Cape Girardeau)
SAINTE GENEVIEVE
WAKEROBIN
JULIUS C. WILKIE (ex- James P. Pearson)
W. J. QUINLAN
CHRIS GREENE (main and boiler decks - burned 1968)
RENOWN (ex- Sarah Edenborn - main & boiler decks - scrapped 1995)
SPRAGUE
GEN. JOHN NEWTON
CITY OF BATON ROUGE (ferry)
MINNESOTA (Mayo Brothers steamboat) sank & scrapped at St. Louis -1978
BECKY THATCHER #1 (ex- C.B. Reese, Wood River, I.A. O'Shaugnessy)
BECKY THATCHER #2 (ex- Mississippi)
MAMIE S. BARRETT
PRESIDENT
GOLDENROD SHOWBOAT

Are the pieces still technically owned by anybody? Could some passerby just up and take a piece lying there in the field? Seems very insecure to me.

PREZ

I presume the whole thing is owned by David Campbell yet. I've never been down there, but reports are that the stuff is just lying out in an open field, with no security around. I'm actually surprised stuff hasn't disappeared already.

Judy,

It sure doesn't look like much of the old girl made it to St. Elmo. From the look of the pictures there isn't nearly as much steel as there should be for a whole steamboat to have made it there.

Gee, I believe the total count of steamboats lost in the last 2 years is up to 7...or is it more.

DQ
MQ
MARY WOODS 2
JULIA BELLE SWAIN (May possibly survive with quick action)
PRESIDENT
BECKY THATCHER
AQ (Could possibly come back)

At this rate we had better all ride the BELLE OF LOUISVILLE and the NATCHEZ every chance we all get to make sure we keep them running. Steamboatin' is too precious to lose!

Travis

PREZ steelwork

According to the frequent visitor, the steelwork is piled in another site, not by these remnants. It is interesting to note that the letters on the pilothouse have disappeared since the dismantling. I reiterate: I have NOT ever been down on that site! But frankly at this point I'd rather see some of these things 'liberated' by steamboat people who would treasure and preserve them rather than have everything sold as scrap.

Almost as long as 5 Airbus A380 Airplanes, approx four football fields. About 700 tons of new supplies needed per week. During a week (in the Caribbean) customers consume 'about 20 gallons of maraschino cherries and 80,000bottles of beer'.

The smoke stacks can be retracted to pass under bridges, such as Verazano-Narrows in New York City, 26 kitchens for 24 restaurants and the staff cafeteria, an emergency helicopter landing pad far forward, 20,000 towels tablecloths and sheets washed dailey. When more Germans are onboard extra pork is ordered. Americans favor chicken and beef. There is a jail on board. Most of the 86,111 sq.ft of glass is wahsed by hand, 18 robots wash windows in hard to reach places.

Every evening at 5:00 p.m. Larry Lindsay from Worcester, England walks through the main public areas playing his bagpipe! About 200 entertainers and suport staff required for this 225,282 gt vessel).

From today's Wall street Journ(03Mar10)an article about the MV Oasis of the Seas.

Have never seen it, really don't care to. Not an advertizement for it. After reading about the OoS it just makes the DQ a lot more loveable!

Apparently I overwhelmed the Quick Reply Space.

Wow, for a minute I thought you were posting your ideas for rebuilding the PREZ.... interesting that they have retractable stacks on the OASIS of the SEAS for going under bridges. Carnival's CONQUEST was so tall they removed the high wires near the lower end of the port of NOLA - her stack would fit under them, but they were worried about arcing sp? from wires in high water when the whole ship would be pretty close to the wires. Hope they have a cardboard sign in the bridge: Stacks are UP /stacks are DOWN, so they don't pull an MQ vs. ST. Louis bridges stunt!

Now that would be an electrifying experience! Zzzzzzz-zzzzzzzt!! But then one has to wonder how often these big, tall hunks of steel get struck by lightning.....

Speaking of lightning...

I've always wondered how often boats have gotten struck by lightning. One purpose I've heard for acorns is to catch the lightning rather than to have it strike elsewhere on the boat - true or false? Doc tells a story about lightning hitting the DQ and the noise cleared out the officers' quarters, but I don't remember details. Seems like I remember a time on the DQ when Vic Tooker and his flashing banjo received a jolt, but again I can't remember details... Who has been aboard a boat when it was struck by lightning? How often has that occurred? I would think those old tall smokestacks would have been quite a target.

Give me a crossing on a Cunarder anytime! Why, sometimes the table partners are just as delightful as you would find those working on the DELTA QUEEN or BELLE OF LOUISVILLE.

Capt. Oren Russell authoritatively decreed one night in the DQ pilothouse that lightning could NOT strike a boat that was underway in midstream. Well, ol' Nero got that totally WRONG because the very next evening a big bolt struck the first flagpole aft of the pilothouse on the port side! The sing-a-long was underway in the Texas Lounge at the time. I didn't see it, but Capt. C.S. Ware related to me, in very dramatic recitation, how "lightnin' zapped Vic Tookah and he just lit up and fell ovah while plunkin' his banjo!" They said Vic "glowed" and was stunned speechless for a few moments, but was otherwise unhurt.

Something's always happening on the river!

I was on the Belle of Louisville when it passed under the Big Four Bridge. A storm had cleared a little while earlier and all was quiet. BAM! A loud bolt of electricity jumped between the bridge and our foremast. Evidently the bridge had a stored charge and was waiting for us. Everybody jumped, of course. We were unable to find any trace of burnt paint or other damage.

Cap,

I wonder in their fervor to make a pedestrian bridge out of the Big Four if they have taken this kind of possibility into account. Seems the Good Senator is rushing things on this project faster than fast (the KY side connections are done). Makes me wonder if all safety issues have been taken into account.

Travis

OK. Here to set things straight. I was on my first trip as pilot. Murphy's Law was in full operation. We were enduring a blinding rainstorm in early afternoon when lightning struck somewhere near the pilot house. I wasn't sure if we had really been struck until someone reported that Vic Tooker, who was watching the storm from the Texas lounge, was knocked off his feet. Later on, it was found that one of the searchlights wouldn't work. Lightning can strike anyplace it pleases, but the obvious target would have been the smokestack, passing the charge, for the most part, right through the boat to the water. Stray charges could have passed through the wiring or plumbing. Since the affected searchlight was on the deck right above where Vic was reputedly standing, he could have experienced some of that stray charge. He might have had his hand on a pipe or conduit. Those of us in the pilot house felt nothing. Funny how these stories get embellished.