Topic starter
16/01/2007 12:21 am
If we are speaking of Captain Cal Blazier, many of us recall that the second government light (Mile 952.6) on the Lower Mississippi, while coming South out of the Ohio River, is named for him.
Who can recall that most interesting name of the light that was also Captain Blazier's nickname? And while we are playing guessing games: what well-known pilot, that many of us served with on the DELTA QUEEN and the BELLE OF LOUISVILLE, worked with Cal Blazier on various steam towboats in the Combine days and was fond of recalling a story about the old gentleman pilot whenever the QUEEN passed that light?
Topic starter
16/01/2007 12:43 am
Great Story About Capt. Blazier.
Of all the ones to have a web-page dedicated to Captain Cal Blazier is a financial / risk management group called the Olde Economie Financial Consultants, Ltd. And the only reason is they do is because their headquarters are in the old Captain's home in Baden, PA. There's even an interesting picture of the facade of Captain Cal Blazier's home.
http://www.oefgroup.com/pilot.html
16/01/2007 1:07 am
Quaker Oats. He supposedly looked like the guy on the Quaker Oats box.
Waiting to see the answer to part 2 of this question!
16/01/2007 1:45 am
Would the site of the item be Norco rather than Norce, or is there a Norce La.?
Topic starter
16/01/2007 4:38 pm
Answer #2 ...
The Pilot whom many of us worked with who also worked with old Captain "Quaker Oats" was Captain Handsome Harry Hamilton. He either worked with Cal Blazier on the Combine fleet, or it could have been on the Carnegie Steel boats, or even the SPRAGUE or a combination, or all of those steamboats, as both men piloted for all three.
Cap'n Harry often told how, during periods of low water, Cal Brazier and a companion would row down the river checking on the lay of the river bottom-- all the way from Pittsburgh to New Orleans while stopping in towns along the way to send a telegraph back to the home office to get an update on the Ohio River there. Sometimes he would find "coal boat water" back home, so Quaker Oats and his pal would secure the skiff and get the soonest train back to P'town where the coal fleet was waiting, steamed-up and ready to ride the rise down the river.
16/01/2007 5:03 pm
I must have worked with Harry Hamilton, Jr. He didn't seem to be old enough to have worked with Quaker Oats Blazier, and he never mentioned him. The Harry Hamilton who worked on the Belle was a very amiable man who had steered for Nilo Barge Line. Is he one and the same guy?
16/01/2007 6:00 pm
Alan: I expect the Harry Hamilton you worked with was actually Harry Hamilton, Sr. but not the Harry Hamilton mentioned in all the thread about Cal Blazier. The Harry Hamilton you worked with was with Nilo and OBL. I worked with his son who was Harry Hamilton, Jr. and today would be in his late 50's.
Topic starter
16/01/2007 6:33 pm
There Was More Than One?
Was the Harry Hamilton you knew a pilot on the SPRAGUE and Carnegie Steel? The one I knew was piloting in the '20's for sure. Handsome Harry Hamilton would be just over 100 if he was still kicking.
16/01/2007 7:37 pm
The Harry Hamilton I knew was in his middle 60's in 1965. He WAS a handsome dude and loved to go downstairs to schmooz with the passengers as well as admire the ladies from the wing bridge. I got in a lot of steering while he was out there.
Topic starter
16/01/2007 8:28 pm
Maybe This Will Help
Here's a closeup of Captain Harry Hamilton. Ring a bell?
16/01/2007 9:52 pm
Alan that probably was the Capt. Harry Hamilton with the Cal Blazier connection. He was 85 when he died in 1990 so maybe 65 in 1970's. His son was a doctor in Corbin, Ky. The more I think about the Harry Hamilton I knew, he probably wouldn't pilot on a passenger boat regardless of pay !!
Topic starter
17/01/2007 12:17 am
Handsome Harry's son was a doctor and Cap'n Harry made sure everyone knew it.
17/01/2007 1:18 am
Bill, he had worked for Nilo and OBL, was a good sternwheel handler, knew the bells and only worked to give relief to Paul or Harris Underwood. He would be on for a couple of weeks only, as I remember it. I must have known the original. He just never mentioned Cal Blazier in my presence. And, yes, that was his picture, Sam, horn-rimmed glasses and all.
17/01/2007 1:37 am
Ah Yes, THE Handsome Harry Hamilton in the photo is The Hnadsome harry many of us knew. Yep, his son was a Medical Doctor and yes we all knew it and so did everyone within earshot. As I recall from hearing about his son, the doctor, had a retired Railroad Caboose as part of his office complex. Never saw it, don't even think I saw a photo of it. Always well dressed with shirt and tie on watch. Terrible cough from years of cigarette smoking. We always listened carefully as he was getting ready to come on watch wondering if he was going to keel over from all the coughing and hacking.
Great Radar Pilot. Knew the River and knew it very well day,night and on Radar. Bought three acres of property years and years ago, (in Louisville) built a house on the middle acre and made a fortune as the area developed as he sold off the other two acres.
Topic starter
17/01/2007 4:56 pm
Full-Ahead Harry
A call to a friend in the know, last evening, disclosed that Cap'n Harry Hamilton steered for Cal Blazier before Handsome Harry sat for, and received, his own pilot's license. My friend did not recall hearing that Captain Blazier hit a ferry boat during the Flood of '28-- news to him. He did say that another famous riverman, Captain Fred McCandless of Paducah, was a partner of Old Quaker Oats in the wheelhouse back in their heydays. The name of Cap'n Wm. "Billy" Haptenstall, who brought out the J. B. FINDLAY, was also mentioned, but my notes do not say whether Cap'n Billy piloted with Cal Blazier, or if a young Harry also steered for Captain Haptenstall.
An amusing story came up: Seems that besides the Handsome Harry moniker, Cap'n H. was sometimes known as "Full-Ahead Harry". Once, while flying down the Allegheny River, at the Point with a couple of barges, he made an immediate steer into the Monongahela and as soon as the head of the tow met the oncoming current he ran his tow underneath the river and sunk the barges. His steam towboat then ran up onto the sunken barges and sank, too, when the steamboat hull was pierced by the timberheads on one of the barges. It might have been the HOMESTEAD, my source surmised.
17/01/2007 5:26 pm
It was the MONONGAHELA I believe, anyway Handsome Harry was in a hurry to get the boat to the landing so he could catch a certain airplane home. The story I heard was that as soon as the boat settled on top of the barge, Harry went ashore in the yawl and made the flight.
I remember when we where on our way from Cairo to St. Louis where he was due to get off, Harry worried about catching the 4:30 flight. He sat there and figured and refigured our ETA into St. Louis, he'd call down to the engineroom and ask them to step her up a little, then he'd refigure his caculations. He didn't make it and had to wait for the 8:30 flight...poor Harry.
Topic starter
18/01/2007 4:05 pm
Captain Fred McCandless
Captain Fred McCandless, according to my celebrity source, was a pilothouse partner with Cap'n Cal Blazier. The Search Engine aboard this forum scored a hit posted by the illustrious Cap'n A. Bates that states: "The mate (on the BOL during the first steamboat race with the DQ) in 1963 was Captain Fred McCandless, of Paducah, last master of the CHARLES F. RICHARDSON."
A Google search for Captain Fred found this interesting footnote to steamboat history that was written in 1916 in the Massac County (IL) Journal: "Capt. Fred McCandless is now building another boat along the line of the RAPIDS which will be the fastest boat on the Ohio River. This new boat will be named for the Captain's daughter Dorothy, and will run between Paducah and Elizabethtown."
My questions now are: Do these three references pertain to a singular Captain Fred McCandless, or was there a father and son duo, a Sr. and a Jr. that we are seeing?
18/01/2007 4:39 pm
He was singular, no juniors or such. In 1963 he was very old and extremely frail. He did not work as mate, but rode the boat to 'make her legal'. C. W. Stoll brought him to the Belle from Paducah. He was on the Charles F. Richardson for a number of years as master/pilot.
I didn't go to the Belle until March, 1964, when I replaced him.
Topic starter
18/01/2007 6:05 pm
Chas. F. Richardson
Interesting, though, that Captain McCandless still carried a valid license in his advanced age. Wonder if the boyze-in-blue would allow that today? Would have loved to have seen him, but I was on the rival boat that day.
One great thrill I did experience was a tour of the relic CHARLES F. RICHARDSON after BB Riverboats bought it and sent it south for a renovation that resulted in its demise. For years that flagship of the West Kentucky Coal Company fleet laid tied-up at the Mississippi Valley Barge Line dock in the westend of Cincinnati. I grew up within sight of that huge boat and never ceased marveling at its grandure, though the boat I saw was but the nub-end of what it once had been.
Topic starter
18/01/2007 7:59 pm
Monongahela
Hard to believe the callousness of it all. Imagine that happening today: The reporting to the Coast Guard and the home office, the drug tests, the waiting for the investigators, the long, drawn-out inquiry, the subsequent hearing, the possible suspension or revocation of the licenses, fines, even jail time.... and on and on. Why a pilot would be happy to make next week's flight.