The Omar

Welcome, Mark. The OMAR was one of a number of steam towboats owned and operated by The Ohio River Co. of Cincinnati. Capt. Bill Judd, a frequent poster on this board, knows far more about the OMAR and The Ohio River Co. than anyone else. The boat is till in existence, "stuffed and mounted" as Capt. Jim Blum likes to say, in Clinton, Iowa. For a while she carried the name RHODODENDRON at Clinton, but now I think is the CITY OF CLINTON SHOWBOAT.

The Ohio River Co. also had a diesel towboat by the name OMAR, owned and operated since 2003 by Ingram Barge Co.

Maybe Capt. Bill will get on here and enlighten us further about the Steamer OMAR.

A link on steamboats.org about the OMAR is here: City of Clinton | steamboats.org

The showboat's website is here: Clinton Area Showboat Theatre - Home

Alan Bates drew an excelent set of model plans of the Omar. These, and all the rest of his steamboat model plans, may soon be available from me. I will post a notice on this board if and when this happens.

Pity that my father isn't around anymore. He was her Chief Engineer for awhile. At the time he was the youngest Chief Engineer on the river.If you wanted to bring a smile to his face, have Dad start talking about the OMAR's engineroom. Soon the listener would be regaled with stories about her chrome plated throttle, valve jack and ship up jack, shiney chrome plated guages stenciled Str. OMAR, Port of Cincinnati, Ohio, the Marietta piston valve engines enclosed in blue Russian iron and the red painted deck with hunter green pathways marked out, plus numerous other details that I have forgotten. Of course this was all kept in ship shape and Bristol fashion. Once a carelessly discarded cigarette was found lying on the floor, the Hell to pay lasted for a week.

Today she sits atop the floodwall in Clinton, Iowa in a moat of pea-gravel. Her two main engines are still where they belong, painted black and mostly hidden from view. The throttle has a patina of rust, the guages don't shine anymore, and carpet covers the main deck. She has a proud staff though that was thrilled to take time and show this visitor around and listen to the stories that his father told him. She might not be towing coal barges anymore, and perhaps she's a bit long in the tooth, but she still has life in her. Judging from the enthusiastic staff and the varied shows being offered, she's a real crowd pleaser and will be around for awhile.

Mark here are some facts about the Str. OMAR. Buily 1936 by Dravo Corp. at Pittsburgh for the West Virginia Coal & Coke Co., the parent company of the Ohio River Co., know as Orco. The boat was named for Omar, WV the headquarters of WVC&C. Now the Ohio River Co. was based here in Cincinnati. The OMAR was probably the best known towboat on the middle Ohio River in her day. The OMAR had two almost identical sisterships, the Strs. JOHN J. ROWE and the CHARLES DORRANCE, both built by Dravo for the Campbell Barge Line but acquired by Orco in 1948. The Dorrance is now the MIKE FINK restuarant at Covington, Ky.

The OMAR was just 200' long overall with a 172' hull, rated 1000 h.p. and in my time had B & W steam generators.

In 1939 the OMAR handled a record tow of 28 coal barges from Huntington,WV to Cincinnati on an "open river".

The OMAR ended the steam, sternwheel era herabouts in 1961, lasting longer than her sister boats and the big Str. HERBERT E. JONES (1959)

I doubt now if there are many left who trod on her decks.

Thanks my friends for all the info. My friend is rounding up photos of the boat, Captain, crew and ship hands which I will post. Again Thanks !!! Mark Willoughby

*Str. OMAR one fine boat of fond memory.*

Steamboating colleagues:
Mark's initial posting, followed by Bill, Frank Bob and John 'on the money' RE: the OMAR. Bill's 'bio' along with Frank's memories of his father enriched the story. I remember OMAR well at Coal Haven Landing as a kid along with her whistle at night near St. Rose Church and Dayton Bar. I always had my trusty KODAK box camera for photo jaunts down the street when I'd hear a steamboat approaching. As a school project I made many B/W snaps at Coal Haven Landing including, among others, the OMAR in about 15 shots over a period of time. The photos turned out great [Remember dropping film rolls off at your corner REXALL DRUG STORE for development?] Alas, I've searched my soul for some years trying to track down those photos with the negatives to no avail. Bill correct on the name stemming from Omar, W.Va. In Persian Omar means "speaker, floourish, long-lived." Also a link to Omar Khayyam, Persian man of Renaissance talent and poet. "A jug or wine, a loaf of bread and thou beside me..." Another great classic steam towboat name I like is BOAZ.

As far as I know OMAR burned coal until the end in 1961 from what I saw. When she'd come by coal smoke would roll up the street in our neighborhood with a smell you never forget. OMAR sank near the mouth of the Licking River May, 1948. I do have one fine B/W photo of her sinking that's pretty good. I need to master this .org posting direct as I haven't even scratched the surface of my boat photos here. Fred Way always chuckled over the fact that the ultimate insult of the OMAR's sinking was the Cincinnati office of OHIO RIVER COMPANY corporate offices upon high had a clear view of 'their boat' down in the water. After 1961 I missed OMAR greatly. They were there for years rolling up and down the river with many taking them for granted. Once gone if was forever. Well, what do I know?

R. Dale Flick
Coal Haven Landing, Ohio River, Cincinnati.

Observing the OMAR

I dug into my archives and found a number of scenes of the OMAR, but here are two of the most dramatic, in my opinion. Several years ago I purchased a large placque, sort of a bas relief creation, of the OMAR, about 17" x 27". It is an excellent representation of her, uniquely painted in muddy river water brown, except for the lettering on her pilothouse nameboards, engine room bulkhead and OHIO RIVER COMPANY, which are done in white.

Images:

(1) Downbound in the Cincinnati harbor - 1947. The DELTA QUEEN, still in Navy gray, is alongside either the TOM or CHRIS GREENE at the Greene Line wharfboat. The famous excursion sidewheeler ISLAND QUEEN is at the Coney Island wharfboat. Later that year she would be much in the news following her explosion at Pittsburgh on September 9th.

(2) Sunk in the Cincinnati harbor, May 22, 1948, at the mouth of Licking River. Note the DELTA QUEEN in the background.

The OMAR towed "standard"barges (175 ft long x 26 ft. wide) whereas today's barges are "jumbo" barges (195x35 except for box jumbo's which are 200 x 35). I believe the only place where standards are used today on a regular basis is on the Mon. If my memory serves me correctly a standard would hold about 1200 tons whereas a jumbo semi holds 1500 tons at a 9 ft. draft. Standards had a hull depth of 9 ft whereas some modern jumbos have 13 ft hulls and can carry close to 2000 tons when loaded down. Remember the first 7 ft of draft covers the cost and the remaining draft is profit...so theres a lot more money to be made with a 13 ft hull loaded down to 12 ft draft.

*RE: Keith's fine OMAR photos*

Steamboating colleagues:
Thanks to Keith for posting these two dramatic OMAR photos of the boat steaming past Cincinnati and when she did the KERPLUNK! at the mouth of the Licking River, 1948. The latter the near same to the glossy print I have here.

More on the OMAR's 'bio' may be found in Fred Way's WAY'S STEAM TOWBOAT DIRECTORY Pg. 175, Entry No. T1958. Fred never mentioned what caused her sinking and if he spoke of it or wrote in a past S&D REFLECTOR I can't recall at this moment. Capt. Bill Judd, Tom Schiffer, and others, may know the story. Frank Prudent out of town but may also have insights from his dad. We may read of this in time. No doubt the Ohio River Co. executives, seeing the OMAR in her distress from their corporate windows across the river in Cincinnati, had no small amount of indigestion at their noon luncheon.

By 1962, OMAR was retired as an attraction for the West Virginia Centennial Celebration renamed RHODODENDRON towed as a floating museum from Charleston up to Fairmont with a deck for museum displays with boilers/engines intact. I recalled seeing her from the train to and from my U.S. Naval postings in Washington, D.C. and Norfolk, Va. illuminated at night.

R. Dale Flick
Coal Haven Landing, Ohio River, Cincinnati.

The OMAR was running "light boat" back up to Coal Haven for the rest of her tow. The usual practice was to tie off her loads at Coal Haven, deliver, usually half (10) of the tow to Mill Street just below the C & O Bridge and go back to Coal Haven for the second half to go on down river to the Addyston Terminal. This procedure usually done when the river was up and running. Now she was just "walkin up the river" with too much headway and simply took a dive, submarine style. Modern diesel towboats will do the same thing and it happens quick. Been there and done that.

The ORCO offices were on the Seventh floor of the Atlas bank Bldg, showing up well in Keiths photo. All the "big brass" had offices facing the river. I can assure you it was a quick salvage job.

More OMAR pix

Here are a couple of more shots of the OMAR. I have others - somewhere, and I found the same one Keith posted of the sinking in the Cincy harbor. Perhaps tonight I'll be able to find a picture of her in her current state as the CITY OF CLINTON showboat - I have many shots of that, but again, where???
Capt. Bill Foley of Andalusia was her pilot for quite some time very early in his career and he loved telling details about photos we found of her. Sadly I didn't write any of his memories down.

One thing I have noticed in pictures of the OMAR...she sure carried a lot of water up and over her wheel. It doesn't look like she has problem with her jockey bar (like the MQ did in her early days), nor does it look like the wheel was digging in too deep.

Does anyone know if this affected her speed? Did it effect her pushing power/ horsepower at all? Seems this is something I have seen on many boats of her era (late 1920's till the end of steam sternwheel towboats).

Seems I have heard from Engineers the fact that sternwheel propulsion is most efficient when water is pushed from the wheel and lost when it is climbing the wheel or coming over it.

How I wish we had Chief Bill Prudent or Capt. Alan Bates here to answer this one...they'd have the answers for they were there!

*RE: OMAR's wheel 'digging' the water.*

Steamboating colleagues:
Judy's photos of the OMAR are terrific and thanks for posting. No, I've yet to find the photo series I snapped here eons ago and figure they are either gone, gone or still buried in all this junk.

Travis makes a good point about OMAR's wheel bite throwing a lot of water. I saw her many times with and without barges here at Coal Haven. Even steaming without barges she was a pretty good high stepper. Bill Judd may have opinions and insights on this from his view and experience.

Bill's comments on coal tows being 'broken' at Coal Haven in sections was to navigate safely down through the Cincinnati harbor. The many bridge alignments still make this a tricky stretch of water. I'd like to see the OMAR one more time and hear her whistle--just once.

R. Dale Flick
Coal Haven Landing, Ohio River, Cincinnati.

Memories & Memorabilia of the OMAR as a Showboat

Herewith are several images taken after the OMAR became a showboat, often towed by the sternwheeler MARY ALICE, which once sank somewhere along the line. In a folder of clippings I found several concerning a visit the boat made at Louisville in 1965 -- in competition with the SHOWBOAT MAJESTIC -- moored just across the river at Jeffersonville and operated by Indiana University. Midship Museum curator Ruth Ferris has a notation in her 1966 logbook, kept on the Str, BECKY THATCHER at St. Louis -- that she stepped to the museum door one day to see the RHODODENDRON being towed up through a span of the Eads Bridge, en route to her new home at Clinton, Iowa. Ruth lamented that she didn't have her camera at the ready to record the scene!

In July, 1978, due to a rudder problem, the Str. DELTA QUEEN made an unscheduled landing at Clinton while repairs were made. This provided a golden opportunity for yours truly, a crew member at the time, to visit the OMAR/ RHODODENDRON, then renamed CITY OF CLINTON SHOWBOAT. She had recently been hauled out of the water and placed atop the dike, where grading and other operations were taking place prior to a complete renovation of the boat. I walked around on the main deck and recall that the windows and most of the doors were boarded up and the paint was badly peeling. I also remember that it was HOT and quite a hike (from where the DQ was tied up) to the showboat, and that I had to cross some very busy railroad tracks!

Judy Patsch and I visited the boat during some of our Upper Mississippi River "safaris" in the 1980's and it was good to see that she was in relatively good shape with engines and pilothouse equipment still intact. At least she's in NO danger of sinking! I know some scoff at other old boats that are now "high and dry" (the GEO. M. VERITY, TICONDEROGA and SERGEANT FLOYD are several prime examples) but at least they survive (unless they catch fire!) and nobody has to keep looking in the hull -- if they bother to do so at all -- and then wonder what happened when they find their old riverboat on the bottom! We have lost far too many historic steamboats, due not only to vandalism and arson, but to greed, deferred maintenance and blatant ignorance.

IMAGES:

1) As the RHODODENDRON at Charleston, WV, with the state capitol building in the background.
2) Shortly after opening at Clinton, Iowa - late 1960's.
3) After being removed from the river - July, 1978. Not a great snapshot, but I carried two cameras and took slides with my 35 mm camera! Those slides are "somewhere" in a myriad of carousels!

Travis, I'm going to try here, but I know at the outset my attempt is a feeble one.

You are correct in saying that the more water that gets pushed back from the wheel, the more efficient it is, and this is true for speed. However, on towboats, especially big towboats like the OMAR, they needed power to handle the tonnage. It is not so much a matter of the wheel dipping too deep as it is the width of the bucket boards. By width I don't mean width in relation to athwartships on the boat, but width between the circle and the outer edge of the wheel. There is (or was) a formula for this -- of course Alan knew it, but I don't. Maybe someone else on here can help with that.

The NATCHEZ's wheel is different from the CLAIRTON's wheel for this reason. The CLAIRTON and the OMAR used their power to shove tons; the NATCHEZ and the JULIA BELLE SWAIN used their power for speed. I think hull design enters into this as well, but that is way over my head.

One more think we have to consider when looking at old photos, is that we usually don't know what kind of water the boats had under them. Any boat will "squat" in shallow water, and when a sternwheeler does this, the wheel digs deeper and then carries that water over the wheel.

The Omar was a better "shover" and about equal as a "backer" or "flanker" than her two sisterships and I have no reason why. It was a real treat to see her flank the big bend at Vanceburg, Ky. with twenty loads.

In Keith's latest pictures I had forgotten how bad the additional deck made her look, she lost her good looks. That's one thing nice about the Mike Fink, ex. Charles Dorrance, she still looks just like 1936. I worry if the Mike Fink's days are numbered, even with that new hull.

This inspires me to sift through my chaotic collection of "stuff" to find the thick copy of the "Nokomis Trials" Alan generously left me a few years back. I think if you ask yourself what you want a boat to do, then you can develop an entire vessel to encompass this purpose--paddlewheel, engines, hull, and all the details gathered within. This is easy enough to say, but Alan knew all to well how arduous it was to make a boat leap from the page to the water.

For those who save back issues of The Waterways Journal, Alan's old boat column for the April 18, 2011 edition featured the OMAR, with two photos included.

Bill Judd;29113 wrote: The OMAR was running "light boat" back up to Coal Haven for the rest of her tow. The usual practice was to tie off her loads at Coal Haven, deliver, usually half (10) of the tow to Mill Street just below the C & O Bridge and go back to Coal Haven for the second half to go on down river to the Addyston Terminal. This procedure usually done when the river was up and running. Now she was just "walkin up the river" with too much headway and simply took a dive, submarine style. Modern diesel towboats will do the same thing and it happens quick. Been there and done that.

The ORCO offices were on the Seventh floor of the Atlas bank Bldg, showing up well in Keiths photo. All the "big brass" had offices facing the river. I can assure you it was a quick salvage job.

Her wheel was up and her head down due to having just been coaled up at Hatfields. The recipe was there to swamp her, and they did. Bob McCann maintained that the pilot, when he realized what was happening, ran her over to the bar at the mouth of the Licking so she would settle on a flat piece of river bottom and her boiler deck would not get wet.