Steam towboat B. D. RAIKE

Jon,
The B.D. Raike is one of those wooden hulled gasboats that was built to look like a steamboat. So it wouldn't be listed in Way's Steam Towboat Directory, but Fred Way (or J. Mack Gamble) did list it in the 1949 Inland River Record as follows:

B.D. Raike, diesel towboat, wood hull, built Pt Pleasant, WV 1925. 65' x 16' x 2.2'. Caterpillar diesel 135 hp. placed January 1946, replacing Bethlehem 120 hp engine. Originally a gasboat with 50 hp, and rebuilt at Newell Cochran Docks, Parkersburg, WV., 1942. Owned by F.G. Valentine, Oakmont, PA.

Jon,

Steve is right...she has gasboat written all over her...looks like someone got a old set of scape pipes from another boat and used them for ornamental purposes.

She sure is an attractive little boat! She would look great behind a small showboat with a calliope on the roof just behind her pilothouse. Don't guess a little gasboat could handle a showboat of much heft.

~Travis~

The Raike is still listed in my 1951 Inland River Guide. I don't know any more about her than has already been posted, but I'll bet she was named for Capt. Ben Raike of Gallipolis, who bought the little steam towboat Valley Belle from Showboat Capt. Billy Bryant, then installed the engines from the packet Liberty on her.

Thanks for the comments. I didn't realize it was a gasboat, and only after some more searching on the wiki site did I realize that the steamboat photo collection includes non-steam-powered riverboats. There are a lot of smaller towboats with chain drives to the sternwheel displayed on the site.

Travis: The little towboat ATTABOY handled the T.J. Reynolds showboat Majestic quite easily for over forty years. It was built 1923 with a 90 h.p. gas engine and had a 135 h.p. Cat installed in 1949. Finally dismantled at the Tucker yard in Cincinnati about 1970.

The ATTABOY is now a headboat at the Aurora Marina, just down the hill from my digs in Steeple Town. I was surprised just how much of the original boat remains including the hull, wheel shaft, and much of the cabin.

Mr. J. Fryant revealed, recently at the S&D gala, that he was soon to build a model of the ATTABOY and the T. J. Reynold's showboat, and was interested in visiting the AB and making some measurements.