SPRAGUE

As I recall, the Sprague had the largest whistle ever used on any riverboat. From hearing the sound file of it, I tend to agree.

Downbound in the Cincinnati Harbor

Great pics, Capt. Whitey. Thanks.

Soon after the SPRAGUE was done doing whatever it was doing in P'burgh that year, and being towed back home to V'burg, the Cincinnati media broadcast the news that Big Momma would be passing through the Cincy harbor "sometime early in the morning". So that night I slept on the hard oak planks of the floats alongside our sternwheel houseboat, where the sound of every passing tow 'roused me from my sleep in hopes that I might catch a glimpse of the SPRAGUE as it passed. Several times my hopes were dashed, but eventually my vigilance was rewarded when the giant towboat came down the river alongside the towboat that was actually doing all the work, but from my vantage point, the SPRAGUE seemed to be the one shoving. What a sight it was, too; one that I will always remember.

http://groups.msn.com/WillieandBustersWhirlwindTouroftheWorld/bigmommathestrsprague1970.msnw

Thanks for sharing those dandy photos of the SPRAGUE during her sojourn at Pittsburgh for their 1959 bicentennial celebration. My first encounter with the BIG sternwheel towboat came a decade later when my dear parents took me to Vicksburg specifically to see her in June of 1969. The SPRAGUE had just been painted and gleamed from stem to stern in fresh paint, the huge sternwheel requiring 300 gallons to cover! The entire boat was simply awesome but, of course, the pilothouse, looking as big as a dance hall was just the cat's meow for me with that 13.5 foot pilotwheel, the long lazy bench and all the other steamboaty hardware. The spacious engine room and lengthy cabin, where the River Hall of Fame (containing many models, photographs and excellent portraits of river people by artist Caroline Compton) was located, were fascinating. It would be an understatement to say that it was quite a thrill for a barely 15 year old boy suffering with the steamboat bug to get to roam all over that big steamboat!

I was fortunate to visit the SPRAGUE three more times before the April 15, 1974 fire that all but destroyed her down to the main deck. I'm so glad that I took lots of pictures and slides during those visits! Also have visited her numerous times after she was towed up the Yazoo and beached in a field, and after she had been refloated, sank (1979) and was later reduced to rubble with a few remaining artifacts (capstans, jackstaff, etc.) which are now displayed (and horrendously painted!) on the Vicksburg waterfront at the new Catfish Row Landing. Capt. Eugene Hampton would surely weep if he could see what's left of his beloved boat, especially with the engines, paddlewheel shaft, stacks and other multilated parts lying along the Yazoo and Highway 61. Rest in pieces, BIG MAMA!

Spraque

According to Keiths post I must have missed some stuff !!

Capt. Bill, my bet is that you missed some stuff because you probably were there after Keith and Judy were there. I'll let your imagination fill in the rest. ;-))

Well, I never... how dare you, Bob Reynolds!!!!... You forgot Lexie's name!!!! Our visit didn't bring the sheriff, as Gabe's did years earlier, but here it is: On a DQ trip when Lexie was pilot, and Bob was probably Mate, Lexie and I took the rowboat on the fantail on a trip up the Yazoo from the DQ's landing spot. We left at the crack of dawn before the passengers were up. Lexie and I (for once Keith wasn't involved) climbed around the broken and burned hulk of Big Mama. But obviously others had preceded us, as there was nothing 'loose' or even close to being able to be 'liberated'. So we paddled a few yards downstream to where the huge wheel was lying. There were some Ubolts or stirrups dangling and so we very carefully(because we knew that wheel's diameter was 44 ft. and didn't want to fall overboard into that deep water) liberated 2 stirrups. I had brought a plastic garbage bag, should we be successful in our hunt. By the time we returned, passengers were on deck sipping coffee and looking upriver. So Lexie let me out well above the DQ and rowed back by herself. I nonchalantly strolled onto the boat with our souvenirs(as nonchalant as one can be coated in rust and trying to carry a very heavy load in one hand). My room was back in Skid Row and as I approached it, several pax were watching Lexie and Bill Kelly load the rowboat back on the fantail. They were mystified as to where she could have been so early in the AM and why she was so rustcovered. That stirrup was in my outside pocket of my suitcase on my flights home, and this was well before the scrutiny we now have with checked bags - mine had an URGENT tag on it for transfer in St. Louis. Since I had several hours between flights, I can only surmise my bag was pulled out for inspection and thus delayed. The stirrup reposes, along with smaller ones from the DQ, NATCHEZ, and LONE STAR up here in my River Room. Two final notes: 1)on a later trip up the Yazoo in lower water, we realized we hadn't been in any danger if we had fallen in at the wheel, for her own weight had collapsed her bottom half so that we were actually in only about 2 feet, not 22 feet of water. 2)In 1999 I was racing to get this place cleaned up for the MOR group's visit, and I dropped one of the stirrups on my bare foot, breaking a toe. hmmm... Here is a pix from 1983 of the wheel and stacks up the Yazoo. As most of you know, they removed the working bucket boards and put on lighter slats of wood in her showboat days. The second pix gives you an idea how huge that wheel was - it reaches the DQ's Sundeck! photo from Vicksburg Corps of Engineers. Lexie took the third pix after our mission in low water.

Hmmm, this is reminiscent of the similar collecting of railroad artifacts. In the late 1950's and 1960's, when steam locomotives were being replaced all over the country, such "railroadiana" as builder's plates, number plates, headlights, bells, whistles and more were highly sought. I bought a headlight with number plate from the ICRR shop at Paducah for $ 20 and other items from scrappers or railroads for similar low prices.

But most of those items were "liberated" on midnight raids before they fell to a scrapper's torch. For decades, they have remained in private collections. But in recent years, as the original collectors have passed on, these items have surfaced in sales or auctions and have reached all time high values.

I know one widow who's mortgage was paid off by the sales of her late husband's collection. In fact, I bought several of those items myself and at prices I never thought I would pay. I guess the most prized item I picked up is the brass number plate from L&N pacific locomotive 295, which was streamlined in 1940 to pull the South Wind from Louisville to Montgomery, AL on it's run from Chicago to Miami. I paid much more than I should have for it.

Ebay has a constant stream of sellers looking to cash in on railroadiana and I recently saw one builder's plate sell on there for over $ 16,000. Chances are that the original collector paid little or nothing for it. Was it actually worth that much? Probably only to the person who bought it.

"Some Say a Hippie Won't Steal..." JH

About the only steamboat trinket, of value, I was able to liberate was the whistle off the U. S. MISSISSIPPI. This acquisition was transacted with the full knowledge and permission of the owners of the boat, by then renamed the BECKY THATCHER of St. Louis. Some time ago a detailed description of the event was posted aboard here, so I will not repeat myself. The whistle may now be on the LAC JU SAINT SACREMENT on Lake George, but I'm not sure.

Link to MISSISSIPPI Whistle:
http://groups.msn.com/WillieandBustersWhirlwindTouroftheWorld/bunchofoldhippiesforacrew.msnw?action=ShowPhoto&PhotoID=2253

Link to LAC JU SAINT SACREMENT:
http://groups.msn.com/WillieandBustersWhirlwindTouroftheWorld/passengerboats.msnw?action=ShowPhoto&PhotoID=33

Due to the smaller scale of this whistle (notice how skinny it is), it will not be as loud as the Queen's Lunkenheimer. It will also overblow much easier. You can tell if a whistle is overblowing when the tone suddenly jumps upward by 1.5 octaves (an octave + a fifth) as you pull harder on the lanyard. If it were half the length or twice the diameter it would do much better.

[QUOTE=Shipyard Sam;3790]About the only steamboat trinket, of value, I was able to liberate was the whistle off the U. S. MISSISSIPPI. This acquisition was transacted with the full knowledge and permission of the owners of the boat, by then renamed the BECKY THATCHER of St. Louis.

Link to MISSISSIPPI Whistle:
http://groups.msn.com/WillieandBustersWhirlwindTouroftheWorld/bunchofoldhippiesforacrew.msnw?action=ShowPhoto&PhotoID=2253

If only the boat and train owners knew that they could make some money on 'souvenirs' when they were destroying their vessels/machinery. Capt. Joy Manthey tells of how she remembered them throwing old wooden chairs with "Str. CAPITOL" stenciled on them overboard on the PRESIDENT in NOLA. Keith has suggested, to no avail, that the Howard sell some of the pieces of cabin arches from the ROBT. E. LEE which they have stored on the premises. I guess its the 'beauty is in the eye of the beholder', and to an owner the stuff is just part of the business, nothing sentimental. The Streckfus family was very parsimonious and certainly did reuse things as they replaced an old boat with a newer one. The calliopes are a good example: the PRESIDENT's came from the JS DELUXE and the ADMIRAL's came from the CAPITOL. Of course the NATCHEZ' machinery came from the CLAIRTON, but her roofbell is from the J.D.AYERS. Her whistle came from an uncertain building source on the upper Ohio, Pittsburgh area. Her calliope was built new for her.

Judy,

After the statute of limitations runs out, there is really nothing more fun than the boastful pride of your catch!

Not that I would know anything about this sort of thing.

~Travis~

What lanyard? Most steamboat whistle were operated by pedals.

1877 Triple-Chime Crosby

Take a gander at the whistle on my boat now:

http://groups.msn.com/WillieandBustersWhirlwindTouroftheWorld/steamwhistles.msnw?action=ShowPhoto&PhotoID=3645

That old spiritual "Shall We Gather at the River" could be amended to: shall we gather up whatever at the river, as MANY of us on this board could sing!!!

That middle picture is amazing!