Topic starter
15/09/2006 12:22 pm
It was 31 years ago today (September 15th, 1975) that the retired steamboat BECKY THATCHER, formerly the Corps of Engineers pristine steamer MISSISSIPPI (1926-1961) arrived in Marietta, Ohio, after being towed from St. Louis by the M/V LOUISIANA. A special feature of the 1975 Sons and Daughters of Pioneer Rivermen annual meeting was a Sunday morning open house held aboard the boat, which was in very SAD shape with dirty pots and pans still on the stoves in the restaurant kitchen, trash littering the decks and even a couple of "river rats" (REAL ones!) seen through the open hatches to the hull compartments! A few remaining artifacts of what had been Ruth Ferris' sparkling steamboat museum on the main deck at St. Louis were intact but covered in thick layers of dust and some gift shop stock was still on shelves. The boat had been seized in early 1974 by bank foreclosure, with police coming aboard, closing down the boat and padlocking the gangplank gate, replete with armed guards stationed round the clock. Ohio Showboat Drama purchased the boat at public auction amidst much frustration in getting her out of the St. Louis harbor, a saga of red tape that took many weeks to untangle. Since her arrival in Marietta the old sternwheeler has had numerous restaurateurs, financial plights, grand openings, closures and she's even survived a sinking in 1984. The hull was replated with a thin steel overlay of the existing hull plating in 1985. After being sold for $65,000 several years ago when Ohio Showboat Drama decided to "abandon ship" so to speak, the boat underwent a partial and MUCH needed renovation. Gleaming from stem to stern, she was reopened briefly and it appeared that things finally were looking up for the old steamboat. Alas, this renaissance was short lived and, now closed for over a year, the BECKY has been offered for sale on EBAY for many months, with a starting bid requirement of $550,000. The boat is now just a shell of her former life, shorn of boilers, engines, pilotwheel, etc., and although there have been some interested parties, nobody has purchased the boat at such an exorbitant price. So, today, as the members of the Sons and Daughters of Pioneer Rivermen gather at the Ohio and Muskingum Rivers for their 67th annual meeting, some of the buffs and buffettes surely will pay homage to the venerable ol' BECKY and think some good thoughts in the hope that somebody will rescue this damsel in distress. We have lost far TOO MANY old steamboats to ignorance and neglect (not to mention arson in the cases of the W.J. QUINLAN, SPRAGUE and JULIUS C. WILKIE) and there aren't many more to lose, in the realm of both "living" and "dead" riverboats!
17/09/2006 4:48 pm
Keith Norrington;1312 wrote: It was 31 years ago today (September 15th, 1975) that the retired steamboat BECKY THATCHER, formerly the Corps of Engineers pristine steamer MISSISSIPPI (1926-1961) arrived in Marietta, Ohio, after being towed from St. Louis by the M/V LOUISIANA. The boat is now just a shell of her former life, shorn of boilers, engines, pilotwheel, etc., and although there have been some interested parties, nobody has purchased the boat at such an exorbitant price.
Did Ohio Showboat Drama remove any of the Mississippi III's equipment, or did that happen more the 31 years ago?
18/09/2006 7:18 am
Mr. Wilbur Dow, owner of New Orleans Steamboat Co (the Natchez), bought the steam machinery off the Mississippi III and had it stored in the Toulouse St. warehouse for many years. After that was torn down, the engines moved from temp warehouse to temp warehouse. I'm not sure where in the New Orleans area they are now, but they are there. Incidentally, NOSteamboat also has the Gen. Newton engines.
Topic starter
18/09/2006 11:49 am
The Gillette and Eaton steam engines were removed from the BECKY in 1973 by Capt. John Beatty and his crew, who placed the machinery in a barge and transported it to New Orleans for storage by the New Orleans Steamboat Company. The steel tubular pitmans, and the two monkey rudders were also removed at this time. The four O'Brien water tube boilers had been removed during the summer of 1969 to make space for "The Boiler Room Bar", which became a popular entertainment spot on the St. Louis levee, featuring The St. Louis Ragtimers. As Judy mentioned, the New Orleans Steamboat Company also owns the engines (purchased some 25 years ago) from the Corps of Engineers sternwheel steamer GEN. JOHN NEWTON, a smaller inspection steamboat which was converted into a showboat by the University of Minnesota in the late 1950's. During renovation work at a drydock facility near St. Paul several years ago the boat was totally destroyed by fire, said to be the result of a welder's torch. Judy and I were seen photographing the assortment of steam engines in the Toulouse Street Wharf warehouse in 1983 and were thought to be "insurance adjustors" by the watchman!
Topic starter
20/09/2006 11:10 am
Take the BECKY (MISSISSIPPI) "home" to Vicksburg!
P.S. I'm still hoping that a possible NEW home for the BECKY THATCHER might be in returning her to her OLD home on the Lower Mississippi, where a new LMR interpretive center and museum are in the design stages at Vicksburg and which will include the M/V MISSISSIPPI IV, which succeeded the current BECKY in 1961. The Corps of Engineers museum might as well include their old steamboat (which was the inspection boat for the Mississippi River Commission) and they can then show the evolution of steam to diesel power on the river! Anybody listening down Vicksburg way??????????
In 1974 when the BECKY was for sale after having been foreclosed upon by the bank at St. Louis, the Corps considered buying her to use as a display vessel during the nation's bicentennial year in 1976, with the plan being to tow her from town to town along the rivers. The idea was that people could tour the boat and view educational displays of river history as well as learning about river improvement projects. By the time this was proposed, the Ohio Showboat Drama group had already signed the papers and bought the BECKY. So the Corps authorized the about-to-be decommissioned Missouri River inspection boat SERGEANT FLOYD instead and her final assignment was towing a display barge up and down the inland rivers and intercoastal waterways for 18 months. The FLOYD, by the way, is a Howard built boat and the brass caps on her bitts contain plates with the year and location of her building at Jeffersonville in 1932. Sergeant Charles Floyd was the only person to die on the Lewis & Clark expedition. Following her farewell tour, the FLOYD became a tourist attraction on the St. Louis waterfront until being sold in 1983. Today the vessel is "high and dry" at Sioux City, Iowa, in use as a beautifully maintained visitor center and river museum, containing fine Missouri River steamboat models and other exhibits.