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
As I write this week’s river column, it’s not only Thursday; as the calendar shows, it is also Thanksgiving Day. Nationwide, “Turkey Day” remains a sacred day for most Americans ever since President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed its sanctity in 1863 as a merciless war raged within the nation.
Despite everything that’s happened in the past 162 years since Old Abe signed his signature to the legislation proclaiming the fourth Thursday of November a national holiday, this quiet day, today, November 27, gives me time to reflect on past Thanksgiving days on the river.
First of all, I view “the river” through the eyes of a professional boatman who’s made the better part of my living employed on commercial riverboats while harboring a deep-rooted, ingrained love and respect for the inland waters meandering toward the sea. There was a time, not so long ago, when these differences conflicted within the inland maritime industry, and rivers were little more than wet highways, without regard for their health and well-being. Still, rivers have been my workplace– not my playspace.
As the term “the river” covers — in my case — the Western Rivers of the United States, the waterways draining the central area of the country via the Mississippi River and tributaries, there are also several categories of riverboats operating on these inland waters.
Towboats and Barges
These are two separate types of vessels that even the professional news media lump together and collectively call “barges.”
Barges, however, are individual floating conveyances used to transport various cargoes depending on their construction. Hopper-style barges carry dry materials (grain, scrap metals, finished products, etc.), while tank-style barges transport liquid and gaseous cargoes (oil, natural gas, chemicals, etc.).
Towboats, though, are motorized vessels equipped with powerful engines, steering capabilities, and crew facilities that push or shove ahead clusters of connected barges called “tows.” Towboats and barges are the most dominant and essential vessels contributing to commerce on the rivers today. Where once steam towboats dominated the towing industry, no steam-powered towboats are presently in service on the Western Rivers.
Passenger Boats
The first steam-powered riverboats carried both cargo and passengers. They were the primary means of transportation in the developing region of the country west of the Allegheny Mountains until the Civil War, when railroads became the dominant means of mechanical movement.
After the War, steamboat transport flourished into the 20th Century, until gasoline and diesel engines replaced most of the steam-driven riverboats, except for a rapidly dwindling few that converted their businesses to passenger excursions and overnight tourist boat cruising.
In just the past several years, with the loss of the MISSISSIPPI QUEEN, AMERICAN QUEEN, and the uncertainty of the DELTA QUEEN, no overnight passenger steamboats presently operate on the Western Rivers.
The only paddlewheel steamboats still carrying passengers on excursions on the Western Rivers are the steamers BELLE OF LOUISVILLE, in Louisville at the Falls of the Ohio River, and the NATCHEZ, in the Crescent City of New Orleans, Louisiana. Also, the steamboat CHAUTAUQUA BELLE still operates regularly on Lake Chautauqua, in Mayville, New York.
Casino Boats
Once the saviors of the inland maritime industry, casino, or “gaming/gambling” boats provided employment, new opportunities, and financial hope for residents and dwindling communities along the shores of the Western Rivers System. Slumbering shipyards, saved by orders for new vessels modeled on the preconceived notions of paddlewheel steamboats, sprang into action, turning out scores of riverboats that saved many poor communities from financial ruin, having the good fortune to be selected to host one.
My first knowledge of these new boats came while watching Wheel of Fortune’s Vanna White christen the paddlewheeler DIAMOND LADY in Bettendorf, Iowa, on morning television. At the same time, I owned a busy metals recycling business that my wife, Peggy, and I started from scratch soon after our marriage. Like a 49er of old hearing of gold’s discovery in California, I quickly unloaded my business and set off for a slot on a casino boat.
Exactly one year after watching Ms. White cut the golden ribbon to open riverboat gaming in Iowa, I was a licensed Mate on the very same boat I had seen her on TV.
Over the course of the next twenty years, I had the privilege of working on and commanding five paddlewheel casino riverboats: the DIAMOND LADY in Bettendorf; the EMERALD LADY in Bilouxi, Mississippi on the Gulf Coast; PLAYERS RIVERBOAT #1 in Metropolis, Illinois, “the home of Superman;” the GRAND VICTORIA I on the Fox River in Elgin, Illinois, and sixteen years aboard the GRAND VICTORIA II at Rising Sun, Indiana, Mile 506 on the Middle Ohio River.
Unfortunately, in the relatively short time since casino boats became the saviors of the inland waterways maritime industry, they have all but a tiny few gone shoreside, or else abandoned their US Coast Guard-licensed crews.
When these boats were in their prime, they were the pride of the waterways, or the “Cock o’ da’ Walk,” in the parlance of Mike Fink– King of the River.
Miscellaneous Boats
Additionally, all sorts of government, salvage, service, recreational, and pleasure vessels are all doing whatever they do on the rivers, but for the sake of brevity, little more needs to be said about them other than they exist within the same realm.
So what does all this information have to do with “reflecting on past Thanksgiving days on the river?” On every type of boat I was on, the observation during the late November holiday was quite different.
Thanksgiving on towboats large enough to provide vittles and a cook to prepare them on a level comparable to most any fancy eatery ashore, have the best holiday spreads– roast turkey, dressing, white and sweet potatoes, salads, and an array of pies, cakes, and other desserts. Although this style of fine eating is generally the expectation of a typical towboat crew member, none of them eat as they do on the river once they get back home. Nor could they afford to, even on towboat wages.
Back in the 1970s, when I was steamboating on the DELTA QUEEN, the boat generally tied up for the season before Thanksgiving, so I have no tales to tell of sumptuous holiday feasts aboard the QUEEN. However, the crew received wholesome, well-prepared meals, though not as fancy as those prepared and served to the paying passengers seated around white-linen-covered tables in the Orleans Room.
One notable exception, however, happened in the early 1970s when someone in the Cincinnati office decided to change the grub served in the Crew’s Mess to what they imagined was “soul food.” After a few days of a steady diet of this experimental fare, Captain Howard Tate, a lower river pilot known always to speak his mind, was interviewed by a guest travel-writer fresh from a fancy meal served in the Orleans Room:
Writer: “Captain Tate, how is the food served to the crew aboard the DELTA QUEEN?”
Capt. Tate: “Lady, they slop us like a bunch of hogs — just like a bunch of hogs.”
On the casino boats, holidays were our busiest days when people were off work and looking for festivities and feasting without all the preparations, fuss, and cleanup. Holidays were so busy that everyone scheduled for shifts had to show up unless they had extenuating circumstances that excused them. On the plus side, aboard the GRAND VICTORIA II, all working employees received time-and-a-half wages, including the marine officers who had to be on board regardless of whether or not the day was a holiday.
On that same boat, employees, including the marine crew, ate in the Employee Dining Room, better known as the “EDR.” I recall one Thanksgiving when plain turkey loaf was the main entree in the EDR. Somehow, word got to Barb Anderson, proprietor of “Anderson’s Riveria Bed & Breakfast,” next door, and the mother of deckhand Jesse Anderson. On Christmas day, Barb surprised the pilothouse with a fancy, holiday spread, with enough food for the entire marine crew. Barb’s generosity remains one of the happy, holiday memories from my gamlin boat days.
By the time this story reaches my Sunday readers, Thanksgiving 2025 will be but still-fresh memories — hopefully, pleasant ones to hold and remember again someday.
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.
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