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
So what have I been doing with myself lately? Besides running to doctors’ appointments, I’ve spent much of my time posting on my Facebook account. It’s nearly become a full-time activity.
Why, you ask? As I explained recently in another column, I accidentally found that my page has an amazing following I wasn’t aware existed. At this writing on Thursday, June 25 it has received some 742,300 views in the last 28 days. Since I discovered how many views my page gets, I feel an obligation to rummage through my collection of over 50-thousand copies of steamboat pics and river stuff and share them, hoping to continue providing interesting material for my viewers.
Each Sunday, with the publishing of this column in the Northern Kentucky Tribune online newspaper, the line on the graph indicating views spikes like distant mountain peaks. Only once, so far, have any picture posts exceeded the height of the loftiest Tribune spire. Before I became aware of the attention my page gets, I’d sometimes go for days without posting between Sundays. Since my enlightenment, I’ve been making daily contributions and commenting on them to keep interest and the numbers up.
Besides playing the numbers game, it’s been interesting, fun, and fulfilling to rummage through 50-grand-worth of steamboat stuff to try to find something both attractive and informative to post. Most of my photos and such came from umpteen years gleaning the internet, including 17 years posting on Facebook. So what better use of my efforts than sharing the spoils with viewers with similar interests?
Although I’ve been around the river since I was ten, and began steamboating on the excursion steamboat AVALON, now the 112-year-old Steamer BELLE OF LOUISVILLE, and became the alternate master of the DELTA QUEEN before my 31st birthday, I am far from knowing everything about the vast, multi-faceted steamboat world from which I come. That’s where resources like Captain Frederick Way, Jr.’s packet and steam towboat directories, and such, are within reach of my desk.
In fact, I’m on my second copy of Cap’n Fred’s packet boat directory after I wore out the original copy I received in partial payment from Captain Bela Berty for the aluminum, hand-rowed, river skiff, YELLOW STAR.
Sometimes I make errors, and when I do, I welcome a friendly, helpful, attentive call to my mistakes. Not only do I want to make my river-related posts attractive, but I also strive to ensure their accuracy.
I’m not writing only for a present-day audience, but I want to ensure that future readers and researchers can trust that I’ve left them an accurate historical account to the best of my ability. Whenever certain members of my steamboat peers send a comment, I reverently open it and carefully read their remarks for better or worse.
Just a couple of days ago, an interesting photo emerged from beneath a pile of pictures of Captain Mike Williams, a long-time crew member and master of the DELTA QUEEN since he took command during one of the Tall Stacks celebrations several decades ago. In the snapshot by Chattanooga photographer Mark A. Herndon, Captain Williams, garbed in soiled jeans, a sweatshirt, and boots, stands on a bucket plank aboard a frayed and worn DELTA QUEEN paddlewheel, wearing a work-vest-type life jacket.
Of course, I didn’t know the facts about the wheel’s appearance, so I added a tale in which I imagined the QUEEN running aground, and Cap’n Mike was on the wheel assessing the damage. Which, as a matter of fact, wasn’t too far-fetched. Something similar happened on my watch, leaving Cannelton Lock, back in the early 1970s.
Thanks to Captain Bob Reynolds, I soon received a polite and informative message explaining Cap’n Mike’s mission in the DELTA QUEEN’s ragged paddlewheel:
“This picture might have been taken in Chattanooga after the boat had been laid up there for some time, as the wheel looks pretty rough. There had been some hope when they decided to move the DQ to Houma that she could be taken down there under her own power. However, after the boilers failed the hydro test miserably, they scrapped that plan. Possibly, Capt. Mike was doing some preliminary repairs in case that scenario happened. Or it could be that they were getting her ready for the tow — they also removed a number of buckets so the section in the water would create less drag.”
Additional posts confirmed Captain Bob’s assessment of why the DELTA QUEEN captain was climbing in the multi-ton paddlewheel.
The QUEEN hadn’t run over anything to damage her sternwheel. After losing her welcome in Chattanooga, the QUEEN was getting ready for a long tow to Houma, Louisiana, where she remains to this day.
Earlier Thursday morning, I uncovered another interesting shot that I figured my viewers would enjoy. A vastly overcrowded steamboat packed with hordes of folks clamoring atop every horizontal plane of the sidewheeler WAR EAGLE would surely delight everyone.
However, when I opened my Way’s Packet Directory, Cap’n Fred had five listings for 19th-century steamboats bearing that name. Judging by the overcrowded situation on board the WAR EAGLE in my photo, I recalled how packed with folks many of the packets running special excursions were in other photos I’ve seen.
Of course, no one wanted to miss the boat ride in the days when government regulations weren’t as strict as they became after several fun times turned into tragedies.
Examining Captain Way’s five examples of boats dubbed WAR EAGLE, I eliminated one entry, leaving four.
One, the fourth steamboat by that name, ran excursions, so I figured I was correct in my assumptions, concocted a tale vindicating my supposition, and posted it with the photo.
Again, a polite but resolute message arrived informing me that the photograph was actually of the second WAR EAGLE, and not the fifth. None other than Robert Traunt, author of “A Brief History of the Steamboat WAR EAGLE,” wrote:
“One of approximately seven pictures of the WAR EAGLE, built in 1854, showing Union soldiers heading south during the Civil War, is the reason for the overcrowding. The soldiers wear the dark blue wool uniform, which is why there are no women in light clothing aboard. Alongside is a barge, and in a good copy of the image, you can see stacked rifles. The photographer snapped the picture in Red Wing, MN. Although the WAR EAGLE (second) never got near the Civil War (never below St. Louis), it did carry many troops south from Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Iowa to rail and water connections headed toward the front.”
So, that’s what I’ve been doing lately. Though I’m enjoying myself immensely, I’d rather be out on the river messing around on boats.
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 will share his stories of growing up in Covington and his stories of the river. Hang on for the ride — the river never looked so good.
Click here to read all of Capt. Don Sanders’ stories of The River.
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