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
Although I cannot recall my first ride on the Steamer AVALON, formerly the IDLEWILD, built in 1914 by James Rees & Sons of Pittsburgh, it was surely on a hot summer day in the mid-1950’s. Most likely on a special “Covington Day” excursion when my father, as head of the Covington Traffic Division of the local police department, arranged for parking for passengers riding the steamboat when she landed above the historic Roebling Suspension Bridge, where the MIKE FINK floating restaurant later operated for many seasons.
Captain Ernest E. Wagner, Master of the AVALON, always took the opportunity to take some time off when the steam-powered tramp excursion boat was playing the Cincinnati trade. That was when my family and I met Captain Arthur J. “Red” Schletker, who filled in for Wagner as Captain-in-Command of the vessel.
Cap’n Red always invited my dad and me to ride with him while he or another notable pilot steered. There was a time or two when Cap’n Red accorded me the privilege to guide the steamboat for a short while after passing above the bridges, cruising along a straight stretch above the Cincinnati harbor.
Our favorite place to sit at family gatherings was on the Hurricane Roof, just forward of the starboard chimney, on a couch with floppy, soft cushions. As soon as our family of five came aboard — always with those free yellow passes Dad received for his help — we made a beeline for our special place, where we settled in, almost like home, throughout the ride. Mom kept our seats saved for my brothers and me to return to, periodically, from our roamings about the boat.
The steamboat’s original, unique iron whistle was mounted high, right above our spot. Whenever it blew, the distinctive sound engulfed us, as the steam seemed to lift our spirits above the roof on a great white cloud, which quickly condensed and fell all around like summer rain.
Who can recall the AVALON without remembering the smells of popcorn, dance floor wax, steam, grass rope, heavy fuel oil, and the many other subtle scents that wrapped around the steamboat visitor and enhanced the experience? Later, after I was a member of the crew, floor sweepings with the odor of cigarette butts and stale beer became another smell which, even today, takes me back to those glorious, happy, halcyon days aboard the Steamer AVALON.
The AVALON lasted until the end of the 1960 season when Mr. Ernie Meyer, president of Steamer Avalon, Inc., laid her up where the most-traveled steamboat on the Western Rivers languished below the Cincinnati Greene Line Steamers wharf boat until it sold at auction in 1962 to the Jefferson County, Kentucky, Fiscal Court. Soon after towing the AVALON to Louisville, she was renamed the BELLE of LOUISVILLE.
The late Judge Marlow Cook, the man most responsible for the county’s purchase of the AVALON for $34,000 at auction for little more than a scrap price, later saved the DELTA QUEEN in late 1970 after submitting a last-minute bill while he represented the Bluegrass State in the U.S. Senate. Sixty-four years later, the BELLE of LOUISVILLE still carries passengers as one of the most recognizable symbols of the city by the Falls of the Ohio River.
In April of 1963, a long-running annual tradition began in Louisville — the Great American Steamboat Race between the BELLE of LOUISVILLE and the DELTA QUEEN. At that time, I was a college student in Richmond, Kentucky, about 100-some highway miles from Louisville.
So, early on the cold, gray, blustery morning of Tuesday, April 30, 1963, dressed in my best togs, I walked to the busiest curb, held out my thumb, and began a long, chilly trek to Louisville. In those days before expressways linked the two cities, most of the journey was over two-lane roads. Still, after several different rides, I stood in awe at the circus-like extravaganza on the Louisville levee, where throngs of excited spectators lined up and down the shores on both sides of the Ohio River as a television newsroom helicopter clattered overhead.
The BELLE of LOUISVILLE lost miserably to the DELTA QUEEN. Mechanical difficulties, mostly.
As far as a race between two opposing steamboats, the first event was undoubtedly a disappointment for the local fans and supporters of the BELLE. As the hometown newspaper, the Courier-Journal, later reported, “It’s amazing she ever raced again after a dismal first year, in 1963, when she got stuck in the mud, then windswept, and lost to the QUEEN by a staggering three miles.”
In head-to-head races between the DELTA QUEEN and the BELLE of LOUISVILLE from 1963 until the QUEEN last raced in 2008, the BELLE had 27 wins to the QUEEN’s 21 victories. High water canceled the race in 1967.
During the three-way race of 1982, the New Orleans racehorse, the Steamer NATCHEZ, broke the two-boat rivalry by defeating both the DELTA QUEEN and the BELLE of LOUISVILLE and taking the Guilded Antlers back to the Crescent City. Other non-BELLE / QUEEN winners over the years: 1976, JULIA BELLE SWAIN, and 1999, SPIRIT OF JEFFERSON.
After the DELTA QUEEN last raced in 2008, the BELLE of LOUISVILLE has faced, as it did this past week and won, the sternwheel excursion boat BELLE of CINCINNATI. Although some wags say that because the Cincinnati boat is diesel, not steam-powered, this race is no longer the” Great Steamboat Race.” However, there is also talk of another steamboat getting into the fray next year to pit two steamers, once more, in a run for the gilded horns.
The river’s Sternline Telegraph strongly rumors that Captain Troy Manthe’s revamped and renamed Steamer NASHVILLE, formerly Captain Dennis Trone’s venerable JULIA BELLE SWAIN, will likely return to Louisville to legitimize the event as the Great Steamboat Race once more. Again — I urge everyone — stay tuned.
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.