Topic starter
06/08/2009 3:21 pm
With the former Str. MISSISSIPPI (#3) now the BECKY THATCHER, much in the news as she faces "eviction" from her Muskingum River landing at Marietta, Ohio, where she has been moored since August, 1975, I thought this vintage view, taken 44 years ago during the summer of 1965 on the Upper Mississippi River would be of interest.
After being decommissioned on April 19, 1961, the MISSISSIPPI was sold at auction for $35,110 by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers at Memphis in 1963. She was towed to St. Louis and was tied up alongside the GOLDENROD SHOWBOAT for a time before her owners, John Groffel and Arthur Krato, moved her upriver to a mooring near the approach to the bridge on the Illinois side opposite Hannibal, Missouri. The RIVER QUEEN (formerly the CAPE GIRARDEAU/GORDON C. GREENE), also owned by these gentlemen, proved to be too big for the Hannibal area restaurant market and they decided to move her to St. Louis in July of 1964, where she proved to be successful -- until her sinking on December 2, 1967. So, the two boats switched places, with the MISSISSIPPI being opened for tours with a small steamboat museum on her Texas deck and a gift shop on the main deck. She did not offer restaurant service.
The MISSISSIPPI did "OK" as a tourist attraction, but in the spring of 1966 she was purchased by Frank C. Pierson to replace his BECKY THATCHER (formerly the C.B. REESE/WOOD RIVER/I.A. O'SHAUGNESSY) which had sunk at St. Louis during the spring flood of 1965 after being "caught out" on the levee. When the river rose rapidly, open deck hatches allowed water to flood her hull. This resulted in the boat being wrecked, her steel hull raised and saved to become the landing barge (with a snack bar aboard) for the second BECKY (Str. MISSISSIPPI) which operated at St. Louis until 1975 when she was sold to the Ohio Showboat Drama group at Marietta.
The BECKY was sold to an individual for $60,000 and has been embroiled in controversy for the past several years, closed to the public since 2006. She remains for sale on Ebay with a starting bid of $239,000. Thus far, the old gal has not found a new owner and now faces eviction.
Anyway, here's an image of the old sternwheeler 44 years ago when she was still intact with boilers, engines -- and the first time I was aboard even the dishes were still in the cabinets. Now, shorn of all machinery, etc., she is virtually just a "shell" of a once vibrant and pristine steamboat. Longtime Greene Line employee Virginia Bennett told me that the MISSISSIPPI once came to the aid of the disabled DELTA QUEEN on the Lower Mississippi River when the DQ had mechanical problems. The MISSISSIPPI came alongside and towed the DQ into Natchez, after which Capt. David M. Cook invited the DQ crew and passengers aboard to tour the MISSISSIPPI. Ginny said you could literally have eaten off the deck and everything was gleaming from stem to stern on the government vessel.
06/08/2009 3:48 pm
Perhaps you could write the current owners to see if they would gift the boat to the Howard Steamboat Museum. Who knows they just might do it as a tax write off. I'm sure they would be glad to get if off their hands as quickly as possible. I'm pretty sure the City of Jeffersonville would be more than happy to provide dock space. But then again I may be like the little girl who wants a pony for her birthday.
Topic starter
06/08/2009 5:37 pm
Back in 1967 when Indiana University sold the SHOWBOAT MAJESTIC, then Jeffersonville Mayor Richard Vissing wanted to lift her out of the water and put her in the park adjacent to the museum near the floodwall. He was strongly advised against the idea by engineers and others who told him the dilapidated old wooden hulled showboat would likely break in half. And so the idea was abandoned. The museum was offered the MAMIE S. BARRETT in the mid 1990's, but then, as now, we have no funds to maintain an old steamboat and the headaches that accompany that maintenance. Also, we all know painfully well the history of many old riverboats that fell into the hands of those with little or no knowledge of how to properly keep them above the waterline!
I had hoped that the new Mississippi River Interpretive Center and Corps of Engineers Museum at Vicksburg, currently under construction, might be interested in obtaining the BECKY since they already have her successor, MISSISSIPPI IV, up on the bank, painted and enclosed with a high fence. This would be an ideal way to show the transition from "steam to diesel" of the Corps boats and there's plenty of room on the BECKY for displays, etc. The current owners of the BECKY should contact some big wigs in the Corps of Engineers who are in charge of the Vicksburg project.
It is interesting and ironic that both the MAMIE and the MISSISSIPPI (hull only) survive and are both products of the Howard Shipyard. The museum would love to at least have the pilothouse from the MAMIE which still contains the pilotwheel and lazy bench. But, sad to say, we just don't have enough volunteers and dollar bills to fulfill our steamboat dreams!
07/08/2009 1:17 pm
This question may have been brought up in previous threads, so I apologize for my swiss cheese memory--what happened to Becky's equipment? Was any of her steam equipment saved from the scrap heap?
Topic starter
07/08/2009 1:30 pm
Dan: The Becky's four O'Brien water tube boilers were removed at St. Louis in August of 1969 to create space for "The Boiler Room Bar". In 1973 her Gillette and Eaton engines were sold to the New Orleans Steamboat Company. They were removed by Capt. John Beatty and his crew, who moved them to New Orleans on a barge. The monkey rudders, wheel cranks and steel tubular pitmans were also removed at this time, but those did not go to New Orleans and their whereabouts are unknown. The engines are stored in a warehouse and have been moved several times -- along with those of the GEN. JOHN NEWTON, which the company also purchased some years ago.
07/08/2009 5:07 pm
MISSISSIPPI's engines
For years those engines were stored in the open in the Toulouse St. warehouse. Back in 1983, before I was wellknown by the NATCHEZ people, Keith and I were taking pix of the engines and the warehouseman reported to Capt. Hawley that some 'inspectors' were nosing around the warehouse. Of course Doc knew exactly who they were... when the Toulouse St. warehouse was torn down, the engines were moved to a place on Chartres St (not my apartment), down in the Marigny area. Then they went to Slidell. I'm not sure if they have been moved since, but I haven't seen them for years. Now the reason N.O.Steamboat, Wilbur Dow in particular, bought both the NEWTON and MISSISSIPPI engines: Mr. Dow said he didn't think he'd be building another steamboat, but he knew nobody else would be either, without available engines. Of course, the KENNEDY's became available later and were put on the AQ. They had looked at the MISSISSIPPI's but opted for the KENNEDY's, which according to some engineers I know think was a mistake.
07/08/2009 8:44 pm
Sweet Summers Ago
My fondest recollection of the MISSISSIPI was seeing her run under her own steam power behind President's Island about forty-nine sweet summers ago. She was pristinely aglow in her radiant mantle of brilliant white in the manner of all government-owned steamboats. What a sight!
On one rare occasion, the MISSISSIPPI and our AVALON crossed paths quite close to each other; close enough that the sounds emanating from her engine room still echo as faint reminders in my memory. And if pressed, I would testify that I could smell the hot oil sizzling on the slides as the crossheads traveled back and forth to the tune of those great engines.
09/08/2009 1:24 pm
I do recall a bit of the story behind the selection of the AQ's engines, but why was the choice made for the KENNEDY's over the others? When the MQ was in town some years ago, I had the opportunity to meet Chief Pete Jordan. Among many yarns he spun, he talked about being a part of the construction of the AQ's engine room, but I don't recall many of the details about that. When he was wandering through the Belle's engine, I couldn't resist the story about the sardine cans on the crosshead slides. He got a tickle out of that because he said they ended up using Coke cans on the AQ's slides. I had to laugh myself when imagining the great sums of money spent on the AQ and those antique engines to find some (slightly modified) Coke cans tacked on the end of those slides. It's nice to know some traditions never change on the river!
09/08/2009 3:01 pm
I don't know why they chose the KENNEDY's over the MISSISSIPPI's. Were they supposedly more powerful? Or maybe the price was right. Didn't they have to go to a gator-infested swamp to remove the engines from the KENNEDY?
Topic starter
11/08/2009 1:02 pm
Here are two photos of the Gillette and Eaton steam engines (15's- 32's - 7 ft. stroke) on the Str. MISSISSIPPI, taken in 1963 by Capt. Art Denkmann. The fantail photo, taken in 1955, shows Chief Engineer John Brewer and is a good view of one of her steel tubular pitmans.
Topic starter
11/08/2009 7:27 pm
Str. MISSISSIPPI continued...
(1) Two of the four O'Brien Water Tube boilers - 1969
(2) Port side engine - Becky Thatcher - St. Louis - 1969
(3) Gillette & Eaton engines in New Orleans warehouse - June, 1983 - A watchman saw Judy Patsch and yours truly photographing the machinery and reported to Capt. Doc Hawley that "insurance adjustors" were lurking about!
Topic starter
11/08/2009 7:43 pm
Str. MISSISSIPPI / BECKY THATCHER ...
(1) Throttle and Fire Alarm Location Box - 1969
(2) Water Gauge in Boiler Room - 1969
(3) Engine Room - 1963 - Photo by Capt. Art Denkmann.
