The River: Steamboat sleuthing is part of his nature and also part of the fun — but what about the RUBY?

The riverboat captain is a storyteller, and Captain Don Sanders will be sharing the stories of his long association with the river — from discovery to a way of love and life. The column is reprinted in memory of the 15th anniversary of the passing of Deborah Anne ‘Fish’ Fischbeck on April 2, 2007).

By Capt. Don Sanders
Special to NKyTribune

Captain Fred Way, Jr. called it “sleuthing.” Sleuthing is the propensity of most any hardcore riverboat buff to dissect a steamboat photograph and discover hidden clues about the subject that remain overlooked by the casual observer.

Recently, my banjer-picking, folksong singing, musically-inclined friend from Maine, Charlie Ipcar, posted a picture of an obscure sidewheel steamer, the RUBY, laying alongside an excursion barge on a small river with a rickety-looking railroad bridge in the background. Unfortunately, the only clue further identifying the RUBY was that the image came from the collection of the late John Hartford, another music-making steamboat buddy.

Thinking this should be easy, I reached for my well-worn copy of WAY’S PACKET DIRECTORY, 1848-1994, and thumbed to the “R’s” until six RUBY listings appeared on page 405. How did Cap’n Way distinguish one from another with so many steamers with similar names? Simple. Every steamboat in Way’s directory received a distinctive number. For example, the first RUBY bears No. 4867, while the last is 4872.

The RUBY in Charlie’s posting was a sidewheeler with its paddlewheels on the sides of its hull. Way identifies sidewheel steamboats as “SW.” In Captain Fred’s nomenclature, boats with their paddlewheels on the back-end or stern of their hull are known as “sternwheelers” or “Stw.” Equally divided between side and stern wheel listings, half the RUBY-boats faced immediate elimination. Again, the thought, “this is going to be easy,” came to mind while I compared the entries.

An exceptional feature of the RUBY photo was the single-decked, covered excursion barge that lay alongside her outboard, starboard side. Freshly-cut greenery decorated both the barge and the steamer. While the photographer clicked away, both vessels patiently awaited revelers from the shore of a narrow, unnamed river somewhere in the American heartland. Unfortunately, no further identification or information comes from the Hartford Collection or those following Charlie’s post.

So with the aid of WAY’S DIRECTORY, I set about uncovering more “dope” on the trim steamboat named for the blood-red colored gemstone.

RUBY, No. 4867, a sidewheeler built in West Elizabeth, PA, in 1851, was 116-feet in length by 20 wide and ran on the Red River in 1852. After going to Mobile in 1855, this RUBY was off the rolls by 1865. This boat was too early for John and Charlie’s RUBY.

RUBY, No. 4869, a sidewheel ferry built in Cincinnati in 1859, was only 78 tons. She went to Natchez and sank in the Mississippi River in 1865. Still too early for the RUBY I’m seeking.

Only one more sidewheel RUBY remained in Captain Way’s catalog to explore.

RUBY, No. 4871, a sidewheel ferry built at DeSoto, Wisconsin, in 1880, was 54 tons and 105 X 23 X 4.2-feet throughout. Captain Way says she may have operated at Dubuque, Iowa, late in 1895. The List of Merchant Vessels, 1895 designates her as a sternwheeler, but a photograph shows her sidewheels.

Is it the same RUBY, and could the photo Way mentions be the one now in the Hartford Collection? If so, there doesn’t seem to be enough proof to tie Hartford’s RUBY to this or either of the other two sidewheelers in the Way DIRECTORY.

An additional entry for another RUBY concerns a steamboat built at Rush Point, LA, in 1899 for Captain Wm. Maikell, who ran her from Shreveport to Garlan City on the Red River. In the summer of 1900, this RUBY carried excursionists to Ruby Park, five miles north of Shreveport. Later that year, the boat sold to a “Captain Guss, Trinity, LA, who ran her on the Black River handling cottonseed for a Baton Rogue oil mill.”

This description fits the RUBY photo from Charlie Ipcar’s posting better than any other RUBY narrative. Disappointingly, the fly in the oatmeal is that this RUBY was, according to Way, a sternwheeler (Stw) and not a sidewheeler (SW). Darn…

Could there be a mistake? Though Cap’n Fred was not a perfect human being, he was a writer and historian who meticulously checked his work for errors. Through experience, I have found mistakes in online posts, including public and private library and photograph collections, I have yet to see, or hear of, a significant boo-boo in Captain Way’s handiwork.

Although a postcard from Captain Way will not be arriving in my mailbox complimenting me for my efforts investigating the RUBY photo as he did many years ago when I uncovered a variation in a picture of the GORDON C. GREENE, steamboat “sleuthing” remains as exhilarating as always. That is if you dig that sort of stuff.

Captain Don Sanders is a river man. He has been a riverboat captain with the Delta Queen Steamboat Company and with Rising Star Casino. He learned to fly an airplane before he learned to drive a “machine” and became a captain in the USAF. He is an adventurer, a historian and a storyteller. Now, he is a columnist for the NKyTribune and will share his stories of growing up in Covington and his stories of the river. Hang on for the ride — the river never looked so good.