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.
By Capt. Don Sanders
Special to NKyTribune
It was pleasantly surprising to see an advertisement this past week seeking a licensed steamboat engineer and a 100-ton captain with experience on sternwheel passenger boats. The ad further elaborated:
“Nashville Riverboats is restoring the Steamer JULIE BELLE SWAIN (renamed NASHVILLE) and Riverboat CAPITOL, an authentic diesel electric sternwheel vessel, formerly SPIRIT OF PEORIA.” The ad promised “competitive pay, PTO, 401K, insurance benefits, and moving and relocation allowances.”
The former JULIA BELLE SWAIN (JBS) is a right-smart little steamboat built by the late Captain Dennis Trone at the Dubuque Boat & Boiler Works, Dubuque, Iowa, in 1971. She’s 108 X 22 with the steam engines from the ferry CITY OF BATON ROUGE, a center-drive paddlewheeler I used to ride from Baton Rouge to Port Allen, Louisiana during my off time onboard the Steamer AVALON during the summer of 1960.
Soon after the completion of the JBS in ’71, Captain Trone moved her to Peoria on the Illinois River, where she and the DELTA QUEEN were supposed to race. With both boats sold out for the race, thousands of spectators lined the shores along the course, but a mechanical glitch prevented the JBS from participating. Among the river sect, this became the “race that never was.” The DELTA QUEEN, however, departed the dock, ran the race course, returned to the finish line, and declared the “winner.”
Aboard the DELTA QUEEN, where I was the First Mate, bluegrass musician, and steamboatman, John Hartford, who was along for the ride, entertained the passengers. After the run upstream to Lake Peoria, where the QUEEN got stuck in foul-smelling black sludge on the lake bottom while turning around, I invited John to accompany me to the JBS to meet Captain Trone. We found the disappointed and exhausted skipper napping on top of a pile of life preservers. Once awake, he cordially welcomed us. After introductions, the two boatmen began a legendary friendship often reflected in Harford’s many songs about the JULIA BELLE.
The JBS remained in Peoria, offering cruises on the Illinois River until 1995, when Captain Trone sold her. The steamboat’s new owners moved her to La Crosse, Wisconsin, on the Upper Mississippi River. The small steamboat operated at La Crosse until 2008, when she lay up for much-needed repairs. Following a series of starts and let-downs, the JBS remained dormant in a La Crosse slough until Captain Troy Manthey rescued her a couple of years ago.
Cap’n Manthey was in charge of my last commercial vessel, the QUEEN OF NEW ORLEANS / FLAMINGO, when Hyatt Gaming purchased it in 1996 and renamed it the GRAND VICTORIA II. Captain Troy and his crew delivered the elegant paddlewheeler to Louisville, where I assumed command and eventually relocated the boat to Rising Sun, Indiana, on the Middle Ohio River, where I remained as the casino boat’s Senior Captain for 16 years. Presently, with the future of the Rising Sun casino in doubt, the eventual fate of the palatial sternwheeler remains in limbo. I want you to know, Captain Manthey, that your old boat may become available soon.
Capt. Troy has since founded “Manthey Hospitality,” featuring passenger-carrying riverboats headquartered in Tampa Bay, Florida, with some 14 cruise vessels. However, the NASHVILLE, formerly the JBS and the CAPITOL, the former SPIRIT OF PEORIA, “an authentic diesel-electric sternwheel vessel,” will be calling Nashville, “Music City,” Tennessee, on the Cumberland River, their new port of call. Such is the purpose behind fueling the flame for this week’s river column.
Finding a Captain carrying a United States Coast Guard 100-ton passenger license with experience handling a sternwheeler may be daunting enough for anyone in need, but uncovering a licensed steam engineer may prove to be a bigger challenge. The ad doesn’t specify whether the captain’s ticket needs to indicate “steam or motor vessels,” as mine did for half a century. I’m just curious.
In 1971, after two years as First Mate of the DELTA QUEEN, when I “sat,” or tested for my Coast Guard-issued license as a “Master of Steam or Motor Vessels of Any Gross Tons, Inland,” there were only around 1400 holders of such federally authorized sanctions in the entire United States. Unlimited tonnage licenses are the scarcest. Around the same time I was testing for my license, shipmate Second Engineer Kenney P. Howe, Jr., also aboard the QUEEN, sat for his Chief Engineer’s certificate.
After Kenny and I passed our exams, “Cap’n” Betty Blake, Vice President and General Manager of the Delta Queen Steamboat Company, saw a novel way of generating publicity from her young officers, which included Jim Blum, Second Mate. Cap’n Betty arranged to have Captain Ernest E. Wagner, Master, and Chief Cal Benefiel take time off the boat and have her newly licensed youngsters assume command and operate the DELTA QUEEN.
Kenny became the Chief Engineer in Cal’s place, as I filled in for Captain Wagner, while Jim took my usual position as First Mate. Ms. Blake dubbed us the “Kiddie Crew.” As embarrassing as the name sounded, we were swamped by the news media clamoring for print and TV interviews wherever we took the DELTA QUEEN.
Engineering licenses are more complex than navigation issues, as they specify what the holder is responsible for and the type of steam vessels they are authorized to serve on, among other details, in rather complex terms. I’m just thankful my Master’s exam did not require: “Explain in full the various designations of a steam engineer’s license.” I’d have been a goner.
While rechecking the social media posting for the steam engineer, I noticed some remarks from followers mentioning a fellow’s name that failed to elicit a knowledgeable response from me. He must be a licensed steam engineer and available. According to Cap’n Troy’s ad, both openings on the NASHVILLE are plum positions with comparable pay and benefits. If I were a couple of decades younger and my license was current, I might forward a resume to the Tampa office.
In a sad, recent era when the Mississippi River Systems’s passenger boat industry lost so many of its iconic boats: the AMERICAN EMPRESS, AMERICAN DUTCHESS, and especially the legendary AMERICAN QUEEN, while the historic DELTA QUEEN languishes unknowingly in a Louisiana backwater, it’s indeed refreshing to see an advertisement for licensed steamboat officers and crewmembers to staff not only one passenger boat but two.
My best wishes for success go to Captain Troy Manthey and the crew, staff, and administrators of the Steamer NASHVILLE and the stern paddlewheeler, M/V CAPITOL.
Again, if I may borrow the words of Cap’n John Hartford:
“May your paddlewheels be free of driftwood
May you never run aground.May all your winds be tailwinds
And all your trips be down.”
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
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.
Click here to order your Captain Don Sanders’ ‘The River’ now.