The riverboat captain is a storyteller. 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.
Capt. Don Sanders
Special to NKyTribune

Last week’s river column featuring the U.S. Lighthouse Service Tender GOLDENROD brought an unexpected surprise. Although the story featured the handsome steamer from 1888 through 1890, imagine my delight finding that Captain/Chief Engineer Arthur J. “Red” Schletker, my boyhood friend, co-worker, and mentor who helped me obtain my first slot working aboard a steamboat, also served on the GOLDENROD.
“Captain Red,” as he was known, was the relief Master of the Steamer AVALON when my family and I rode many trips on the steam excursion boat in the 1950s. Captain Schletker, I just discovered, had been the Chief Engineer on the GOLDENROD from 1922 until 1924, before the government commissioned the U. S. GREENBRIER.
GREENBRIER

A U.S. Lighthouse Service Tender. Built in Charleston, WV, by Ward Engineering Works in 1924. Steam sternwheeler with a steel hull. 164 X 32 X 5.5. Engines, 15s – 7-foot stroke. Three boilers. Transferred from the U. S. Lighthouse Service to the U. S. Coast Guard on 01 July 1939. During WWII, an anti-aircraft gun was mounted on the roof. Decommissioned, 01 September 1947, and laid up. Eventually, the tender became a landing dock on the Gulf Intercoastal Waterway.
After the GREENBRIER, also a lighthouse service tender, went into active duty in 1924, replacing the GOLDENROD, Captain Schletker became its Chief Engineer and not a Master or Pilot as he was when I met him 30 years later. The first Master, or “Captain,” of the GREENBRIER was Capt. Leslie Hill who commanded the always-pristine steamboat until 1938.

Cap’n Red told me that upon Capt. Hill’s retirement, his superiors asked if he wanted to assume charge of the vessel. Although the offer was enticing, Chief Schletker reminded them he was unlicensed beyond the engineering department. However, after receiving the required study material, he tested for and received his certification as a “Master of Steam and Motor Vessels of All Gross Tons.”
When we met in the ’50s, Captain Red held, in addition to his Chief Engineer and Master licenses, a First-Class Pilot’s Certificate. Eventually, Captain Schletker retired from his beloved GREENBRIER as a Lieutenant Commander, the same rank Holman Vail of the GOLDENROD held in the U. S. Navy in the late 1880s.
Of all the steamboats Cap’n Red was on, the GREENBRIER was, without a doubt, his favorite. Over half a century ago, while aboard the AVALON, now the BELLE of LOUISVILLE, he often mused longingly about the all-white-painted stern paddlewheel of the government boat.
I could only imagine the difficulty of keeping such a paddlewheel clean on murky, silt-laden, moss-strewn streams within the Mississippi River System. Keeping clean a “brush pile” painted PWR (PaddleWheel Red) was practically a full-time job aboard the paddlewheelers I was on. Maintaining an all-white wheel must have been the bane of younger boatmen with other ideas about how they wanted to invest their time afloat.

Since 1939, the U. S. Coast Guard has assumed the duties of the Lighthouse Service, maintaining the lights and navigation aids on the Western Rivers. Many of today’s duties must be similar to those performed by Quartermaster Rees and others of the GOLDENROD.
The vessels that performed these tasks at the beginning of the second quarter of the 21st century are still called “tenders.” The 65-foot Coast Guard Tender OBION services the Ohio River where I live. According to a Coast Guard website, the modern tender extends another 100 feet in length with a crane-equipped barge in tow and has a “compliment,” or crew, of twelve, a speed of 10 knots, and a range of 3,500 nautical miles.
While browsing Quartermaster Ralph W. Rees’s logbook of the GOLDENROD, I noticed how frequently the crew “took on” wood and coal for fuel. Although the “ROD” probably covered the same fluvial territory as her modern counterpart, her staff spent numerous hours shoving and wheelbarrowing that heavy, dirty fuel on board — a job crew members of any vessel would never miss having to do today.

According to Rees’s log, the GOLDENROD crew also “chopped” quite often, clearing brush and trees obscuring the navigation lights mounted ashore. I imagine this is a chore familiar to the tenders now servicing the electric-powered lights that long ago replaced the coal oil lamps of Rees’s time. Although gasoline-powered chain saws are a tool of today’s crews, I’ll wager there’s more than one double-bitted axe in the OBION’s tool chest.
Some things never change — only their performance. It’s comforting to know that the spiritual mission of the USLHT GOLDENROD has continued without interruption for 137 years. Only the names of the vessels and those who have kept them going have.
In another century and a third, a futuristic GOLDENROD may be tending the lights and navigation aids on the same river. However, with technological advances, crewless vessels, perhaps drone-like flying “tenders” without a human complement, may do all the same duties Rees and countless others have done, only better. But who knows? Only time has the answer.

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, sharing his 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 Northern Kentucky Tribune, is 264-pages of riveting storytelling, 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.
Order your Captain Don Sanders’ ‘The River’ book here.
Another excellent article by Captain Don.
Captain Don’s “The River” book is a comprehensive history of local maritime activity/industry and a great read. Don recounts stories ranging from swimming on the banks of the Licking in Latonia to working on the DELTA QUEEN. He is a local treasure.
The progression of boats and people through the streams of earth and time is simply fascinating. To discover new dimensions about ones we are connected to is “pert near” sublime! Thanks, Capt. Don, for these new tales from The River!
Another fresh installment from Captain Sanders! Thank you so much for taking the time to write these! I am a new reader to your column, and I look forward to your next article. Your dedication and enthusiasm for the history of the steamboat world is evident, thank you for bringing these stories to we your dedicated (new and returning) readers.
Seconded!