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
Surprisingly and as shockingly as anything I’ve heard in a while was hearing about Captain Richard J. “Kutch, Butch, or Dick” Karnath’s passing on August 8, a week and a day shy of his 82nd birthday.
Cap’n Dick and I first met in the early autumn of 1965 when the Steamboat DELTA QUEEN was working the Upper Mississippi River from St. Louis to St. Paul, as it did each fall when that stretch of the river had the most dazzling displays of vibrant colors of tree leaves anywhere on the Western Rivers before winter closed the cruising season. Dick’s dad, Captain Walter Karnath, came aboard at St. Louis as trip pilot on the stretch above St. Louis. Along the route, the Karnath family appeared onboard. Among them was one of their sons, Richard, but everyone preferred “Kutch” when addressing him.
Kutch was either in his later college days or he’d already graduated and was teaching mathematics at the public school in his hometown of Winona, Minnesota. It’s hard to recall exactly. I’m a shade older than he, and I’d just graduated from college earlier that June, but then I dropped out a semester to further my education at the Ernest. E. Wagner School of Steamboating aboard the excursion steamboat, AVALON, and fooled around enough that I was a grad two years later than the classmates I enrolled with after high school. I have flashes of Butch coming by my duty station in the engine room to say hello.
We probably saw each other more in 1970 through ‘73 when I returned to the DELTA QUEEN after leaving the boat in St. Louis in September of 1965 for a stint in the Air Force. Whenever Captain Walter Karnath was aboard, members of the Karnaths were there too whenever they could.
By then, Kutch was teaching math, but came around the QUEEN as often as he possibly could. I remember wondering why he chose to teach in school rather than work on the river like his father, Walt, and his grandfather, Captain Rudolf Jaccob Karnath. After I left the DELTA QUEEN in 1973, I scarcely saw Richard, or any of his family, except on rare occasions over the years. But somehow, they were often still on my mind.
The next I heard of Dick Karnath, he was steamboating on the DELTA QUEEN after starting his boating career while in his 30s. Before long, he was officially “Captain Richard Karnath,” a duly licensed steamboatman like his father and grandad.
Although we never worked together, Cap’n Dick gave me a guided tour of the AMERICAN QUEEN, where he was a pilot. Just recently, I read that he held a First Class Pilot License from St. Paul to the bridges in New Orleans harbor, a feat of outstanding accomplishment.
Or as Capt. Lee Hendrix of the AMERICAN QUEEN recently wrote of his friend and colleague, Cap’n Dick:
“Dick was one of the last of a breed… who were mandated to have First Class Pilotage wherever we ran. His license, I believe, stretched from the Greater New Orleans Bridge to Lambert’s Landing in St. Paul, a distance of about 1800 miles. In essence, he had to draw all that river from memory, including bridges and their clearances, navigation lights, sandbars, pipeline crossings, overhead crossings, etc. It is a monumental undertaking.”
The river with its flowing current is often used as a metaphor for time — ”Time and the river keep rolling on by,” according to the words of a John Hartford tune. We each have our time, and eventually reach our last port of call on that never-ending stream.
Now that Captain Richard J. Karnath has reached his last landing, may he receive a final farewell whistle salute and be remembered as a loving husband and family member, as well as a steamboat pilot and captain respected from the source of the Mississippi River to the sea.
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.
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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