The River: Just another adventure for the books as friends and river rats come to the rescue

The riverboat captain is a storyteller, and Captain Don Sanders shares the stories of his long association with the river — from discovery to a way of love and life. This a part of a long and continuing story. It first appeared in December 2019.

By Capt. Don Sanders
Special to NKyTribune

According to the weather reports I’ve been following, there’s no snow forecast for Christmas this year. Old Santa’s going to be battling temps in the mid-fifties – not sledding weather, and a far cry from when John Harford lamented in his tune, “Steamboat Whistle Blues:”

“I got stuck in the ice on Christmas Eve
And I froze my ass it’s true…
Just a shiv’rin and a-shakin with a Down South case of them
Steamboat whistle blues…”

A steamboating buddy from my gamblin’ boat days, Cap’n Dan, recalled the times his family lived on a shantyboat along the shore at Cairo, Illinois, just above the point where the Ohio River intersects the Mississippi. Dan’s father, scouting for a place to resettle his family somewhere away from their ancestral home in Middle Tennessee, arrived in Cairo just as the Great Flood of 1937 encircled the vital river port protected by an earthen levee surrounding the town. The father, like every other able-bodied man, was pressed into a work gang and fought alongside the residents battling to strengthen the dike to keep their city dry.   

Once the floodwaters receded, Cairo was one of the few cities along the Ohio River not inundated by the worst flood in the record books. A grateful community offered Cap’n Dan’s dad a plot of ground on the riverbank to grow a garden alongside the floating home his new neighbors helped him build. Gradually, after the family arrived and settled into their shantyboat home, they took root and ultimately prospered.   

The waters of the nearby Mississippi River provided catfish and carp for the table, which was also traded, or sold, to fish-hungry city dwellers in Cairo and nearby river towns. The family raised corn, beans, potatoes, and greens in their garden along the shore. Blackberries, raspberries, apples, and other wild fruits were picked, canned, and stored in the hull of the shantyboat for use until the next harvest season gave them another bounty. 

“We always had a’ plenty to eat, a snug home on the water and clean clothes on our backs, but my folks didn’t have much in the way of money. We made do with what we had. Christmas, though, was always extra special. Weeks before the holiday, Mother and my sisters started making racks of pies loaded with berries we picked earlier that Fall. There were tarts and cakes and all sorts of baked goodies piled high in the kitchen – more’n we could ever eat, so we gave ‘em as gifts to our shantyboat neighbors and folks living in town. We had so much, people thought we wuz rich,” my riverboat pal remembered.

Of course, to the men and women on the towboats shoving barges all over the Mississippi River System, Christmas will be “another day at the office,” except for when they gather in the galley (kitchen) for an extra-special meal more astounding than usually served to a crew a long way from their families ashore.   

Somewhere along the Mississippi on the Ingram Barge Company towboat, M/V JOE B. WYATT, Culinarian Terri Christie let slip the menu envisioned for this coming Wednesday’s festive feast aboard the 6,120 horse-power, twin-screw line boat: “Beef Wellington, Ham, Roasted Turkey Breast, and all the Fixings…” From what I’ve seen in Terri’s posts on social media, the crew also plans to exchange gifts.

On another Ingram powerhouse, the M/V DAVID O’LAUGHLIN, operating on the Lower Mississippi below Natchez, Sheila Ladner, the boat’s talented cook with 24 seasons working on the river, confessed:

“I love what I do – cooking. It’s been my calling from the time I was a little girl with my grandmother and made my first biscuits at age five. I’ve been cooking ever since.”

The nine crew members aboard the O’LAUGHLIN, this Christmas day, will gather around the festive board for Sheila’s “Southern Soul Food Christmas with glazed ham, turkey, and chicken dressing with all the southern trimmings, including homemade pecan and sweet potato pies… and much more!”  

Aboard the CLYDE, my stern paddlewheel replica with the same name as the first towing vessel built for Cole, Ingram, & Kennedy Lumber Company in 1870, Ingram Barge’s predecessor, the holiday season, once passed, will be welcomed. The CLYDE is available for sale, and nothing in the way of selling a boat, no matter how special, is considered by anyone until the year-end holidays are over.   

Earlier this past week, on Tuesday, 17 December 2019,  at 10:12 am, Shantyboat Mike Fletcher sent a message saying he and Cap’n Ron Abdon, the “go-to man” on the stretch of the Middle Ohio River between Markland Dam and the Ohio-Indiana border, were moving Ron’s houseboat and floating dock from where they’d spent this past summer at Rabbit Hash, to somewhere below town.  

“Have a good time,” I answered.

All was quiet until 2:29 pm when Shantyboat sent a more urgent text:

“We are broke down. Tied-off on KY side opposite Magic Valley (on the Indiana side of the river).”

Here I was sitting at my desk wondering what I could do to help my friends tied up in the trees on a swift, rising river with the wind chill playing havoc on their efforts to get their tiny fleet underway. They were in the boonies, especially now that no small craft were running about on the water at this time of year. I couldn’t just ignore their plight, so I reached out to a couple of rivermen in the area. A message to Captain Josh Lakin on the LUCKY LADY ferry had him calling  Jim McDaniel, a local boatman. Though Jim put his boat away for the season, he started calling around to his contacts for help.  

A phone call to the only boatman who could get a boat on the scene, Cappy Dave Miller, found him moving equipment around his Sunset Marina, in Aurora, to higher ground with the water coming up. Miller and Cap’n Ron had talked earlier, but the cell phone connections where Ron’s boat languished was sketchy, at best. For whatever reason, communications from behind my desk remained stable, and though tempted to drive to Rising Sun to see if I could look across the broad Ohio and see Mike and Ron, I quickly realized I could do my best work where I was.

Shantyboat Mike called several times with news of what they were attempting to get the houseboat engine running. After replacing a couple of new impellers on the raw water pump, the engine started, but there was no filter screen on the intake line. Mike was concerned if they got underway and the engine stopped again, they might be looking down on the sloped rakes (bows) of empty coal barges below them at the East Bend Power Plant. They would be helpless to keep from going beneath the barges if they lost power in such a strong current.

Though Ron had the engine running, the two men debated whether to shove off and risk the loss of power after they were underway, or stay securely tied to a tree. Still, without any prospect for immediate rescue, I suggested:

“You’re heading downstream, but afraid of tangling with the empties below you at the powerplant if your engine shuts down again. Push far-enough out into the river, so if the engine quits, you’ll drift past the barges where you will have time to restart the engine or else figure out how you’re going to land at your destination.” 

If they followed my advice or not, I don’t know, but another text message told me they were underway with the engine was running smoothly. 

At 5:22 pm, Mike texted: “We made it!”

Less than five minutes later, I read, “Just got tied up. Running power lines now.”

My response: “ Another adventure for the books. Glad you’re both safe. Tell Ron, ‘Good job,’ and I’ll let Josh and David know you old river rats survived another day.”

Consequently, what was possibly a life-threatening situation, instead, energized a behind-the-scenes effort among a select group of experienced rivermen who would have found a safe solution no matter the circumstances. Had Shantyboat Mike and Cap’n Ron needed assistance beyond our group, we knew that answer, too.

 
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 shares his stories of growing up in Covington and his stories of the river. Hang on for the ride — the river never looked so good.

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Capt. Don Sanders ‘The River: River Rat to steamboatman, riding ‘magic river spell’ to 65-year adventure’ is now available for $29.95 plus handling and applicable taxes. This beautiful, hardback is 264-pages of riveting storytellings, replete with hundreds of pictures from Capt. Don’s collection — and reflects his meticulous journaling, unmatched storytelling, and his appreciation for detail. This historically significant book is available just in time for Christmas gifting — and for the collections of every devotee of the river.

You may purchase your books by mail from the Northern Kentucky Tribune — or you may find the book for sale at all Roebling Books locations and at the Behringer Crawford Museum.

Order your Captain Don Sanders’ ‘The River’ book here.