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. This a part of a long and continuing story. This column first appeared in 2022.
By Capt. Don Sanders
Special to NKyTribune
Nothing lasts forever– nor, following a sad reminder last week, do old friends. While reports dominated the news of the Mississippi River drying up and exposing the wreck of the DIAMOND LADY, one of my former casino paddlewheelers and the sister boat to the BELLE OF CINCINNATI, and photos of curious wayfarers scampering along the dry bottom of the river to Tower Rock a picturesque geological landmark usually surrounded by the protective water of the river below St. Louis, the unexpected passing of Captain Clarke Campbell “Doc” Hawley stunned the river community.
“Cap’n Doc” needs no introduction to practically everyone who has been around the Mississippi and its tributaries for the last six decades. Legend has it that the former sternwheel excursion steamboat, the AVALON, now the 108-year-old BELLE OF LOUISVILLE, was playing a series of trips in Charleston, West “By God” Virginia.
Typically, the raucous steam calliope entertained mountaineers for miles around, but instead, the screeching, squawking contraption of whistles, wires, and brass keys lay ominous still.
“Why don’t you play that thing?” a passenger asked Captain Ernest E. “Ernie” Wagner, the master of the vessel.
“Don’t have nobody on board ta’ play tha’ cally’ope,” Wagner answered.
“There’s a young fellow who plays the organ at my church – I’ll bet he can get it workin’. Mind if I go ask his folks if he can come down and give ‘er a try?”
Of course, a young Clarke Hawley made the J.J. Nichols steam calliope spring to life. Grace and Homer Hawley, his folks, ultimately agreed to allow their teenage son to leave home that first summer with the AVALON under the guidance and supervision of Captain Wagner. I believe it was 1953. “I’ll keep an eye on him,” Wagner promised the Hawleys – making the same commitment, though unbeknown to me, he made to my father, Jesse Sanders, Jr., when I departed home from Covington, on the Ohio River, aboard the same steamboat six years later.
When Doc was a young Mate on the AVALON, my dad assured that ample parking for patrons awaited whenever the excursion boat arrived in town each spring for “Covington Day.” From the local landing, directly across the river from Cincinnati, folks boarded the steam paddlewheeler for a roundtrip excursion to the Coney Island Amusement Park, now known as “Old Coney” to younger generations.
In gratitude, a thick packet of free AVALON passes printed on bright yellow paper arrived in the mail from Ernie Meyer, the head bossman of the office. Although we had more passes than we used in a season, the trips we did take allowed us to get to know the top brass on the steamboat.
Surprisingly, Captain Wagner was not among them. Instead, whenever the boat was in town, Wagner took time away to be home in New Richmond, upstream from Cincinnati, while Captain A. J.. “Red” Schletker filled in for him as Master with a most boyish-looking Clark Hawley running as the First Mate.
That’s where I first met Clarke Hawley. One evening, probably sometime in 1955 or ‘56, while I was on for the “Moonlite Ride,” he and I stood around the small bar on the after-end of the Texas Deck and talked until the boat landed. There, “Big Bill” Willis sold heavy glass bottles of Wagner Cola, Tonic, Ginger Ale, and Lemon Soda as the AVALON carried no liquor license but allowed passengers to bring their alcohol aboard wrapped in brown paper bags. All forms of dilutants, including ice, were strictly outlawed. So the sale of the Wagner brand of soft drinks (no relation to the Captain) assured a steady profit for the boat. And as I was to find out during my first year as a deckhand, the stout glass bottles made awesome weapons, on occasion, for drunken and unruly passengers.
Within a few days following my high school graduation in 1959, my steamboat career began on board the AVALON. Surprisingly, Doc Hawley was not on the AVALON that year. Instead, he was a Mate working opposite Capt. Howard “Doc” Carr on the DELTA QUEEN, a “heavier” steamboat, acquiring time to “sit” for his unlimited tonnage Master’s License.
Legend says Hawley received the moniker “Doc” while a “soda jerk” in his hometown before his calliope debut. “Doc” was the name often given to an employee working behind a drugstore counter, “jerking” sodas, shakes, and such when that form of entertainment was a way of life in a simpler time in America. Aboard the DELTA QUEEN, Captain Hawley was generally “Little Doc” to distinguish him from Captain Carr; usually dubbed “Big Doc” or “Old Doc.”
My second year as a deckhand on the AVALON in 1960 found me working with “Captain” Hawley, as he was then known, after receiving his U. S. Coast Guard License as a “Master of Steam & Motor Vessels of Any Gross Tons Upon Rivers.” There, aboard the AVALON, Cap’n Doc and I shared a professional relationship; not a close personal association. Although we enjoyed some laughs, he was the boss, and I was his subordinate deckhand. To the surprise of those who never had the experience, beneath Hawley’s polished, gentlemanly exterior, beat the heart of an old-time steamboat mate, who, if he wasn’t the most formidable man on the boat, made everyone believe he was. As that is what it took to run a steamboat deck in those days, Captain Clarke Hawley was a virtuoso of the art.
With our closeness in age and my unbridled ambition to get ahead, Captain Hawley strove to uncover the sincerity of my intentions. So he assigned me the dirtiest, most dangerous, and meanest assignments on the steamboat to find out if I would quit or if I could be run off. I completed each of these tasks I tackled gladly and learned immensely from performing them accurately. The more I learned, our relationship progressively developed from boss-employee to mentor-apprentice. Eventually, I passed on to younger ones what Cap’n Doc drilled into me during my developing years. His firm hand guided me to where I ultimately retraced his footsteps and followed him as the First Mate and Alternate Master of the DELTA QUEEN with Captain Wagner after Doc left the QUEEN for the BELLE OF LOUISVILLE in 1970. Six years later, Captain Hawley recommended me for the first captaincy of the P. A. DENNY Sternwheeler in Charleston.
As the years flew swiftly, Captain Hawley and I grew apart professionally but closer together as friends. He left the BELLE in 1975 to become the first Master of the newly-constructed Steamer NATCHEZ in New Orleans. After the DENNY, my path took me to establish Can-Do Recycling in my hometown, marry Peggy, my neighbor-girl, start a family, and then return to the river as the captain of five various casino paddlewheelers.
Over the years, our shared friendship became a more substantial, nearer bond based on our similar maritime experiences, the friends we shared, and our mutual respect for one another. At least monthly, we kept in touch by phone as Captain Hawley never owned a computer and was not a follower of social media. I called his home in the French Quarter only a week before his passing. I’d heard on the “sternline telegraph” that he “looked weak” at the memorial service for the late Captain Bill Dow of the New Orleans Steamboat Company, the parent company for the Steamer NATCHEZ and the M/V CITY OF NEW ORLEANS. Doc revealed he’d had treatments for a medical issue, but he assured me the doctors “took care of it,” and all he needed was some rest to recover.
When I heard that Doc was back in the hospital, I was determined to give him another call on Thursday or Friday, the 10th or 11th of this month. But before I could act, a message on Saturday morning, 12 November 2022, came from my former Cub Pilot on the P. A. DENNY, Captain Tom Price. Tom was telephoning with the news I dreaded hearing – Captain Clarke Campbell “Doc” Hawley, my Captain, Mate, mentor, and friend, had died earlier that day.
Hundreds of Cap’n Doc’s friends and possibly thousands of his acquaintances all lament his passing in varying degrees, each corresponding to their relationship with him.
Or as I posted on a web page:
“Perhaps, the only positive note to come out of the passage of Captain Hawley is the realization that none of us have to grieve him alone.”
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 share shis stories of growing up in Covington and his stories of the river. Hang on for the ride — the river never looked so good.
Purchase Captain Don Sanders’ The River book here
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, published by the NKyTribune, 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 perfect for the collections of every devotee of the river.
You may purchase your book 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 and the St. Elizabeth Healthcare gift shops.
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Awesome article Captain Don.
Tis another sad anniversary remembering Capt. “Doc” Hawley “crossing the bar”. Thank you, Capt. Don, for bringing your memories of him to the fore.
Your article made me laugh and cry. Doc was a very special person to me. He not only hired me to work in the office of Greene Line Steamers in 1966, he became a great friend. He was special!
I remember meeting Doc aboard the Sternwheeler P. A. DENNY in Charleston. That must have been when you piloted her in 1976 and 1977.
Another appreciated peek into the past.
Oh the steamboat Network. Thanks,Don for resharing your heartfelt tribute to a “Renaissance” man loved by many respected by all . The River will never be the same, not as bright or warm, but thank heavens he left many he trained to carry on the tradition.. You carry the legacy well.