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
With all the talk and excitement going around on the river these days about this and that, and who’s doing what, when, and where, the one thing missing for us elder retired river rats is a boatman’s bethel. A place like an old folk’s home, but for riverboat folk too old and feeble to toil, who still enjoy hanging with our own kind and reminiscing about the river. Any old shanty boat would be ideal.
Of course that will never happen. Instead, we are blessed with the internet and smartphones- — electronic tools that preceding generations lacked. Now, instead of driving one’s uninterested family and lubber acquaintances nuts talking about the river, steamboats, old-time captains, and skillful pilots, all one has to do is post a picture and text onto social media and wait for a response. The closest resemblance is fishing — bait a hook, cast it into a body of water where the critters live, and wait for one to take the bait. That’s what I do.
There’s always some grumbling going on about the DELTA QUEEN — the more the merrier. Someone needs to step up and get the QUEEN out of limbo where she’s been far too long. Maybe she’ll never run again as unfettered as she was when I remember her, but at least give the old girl a new home — one of her own where she can once more host friends and guests — much as she did in Chattanooga. Or, like her brother, the DELTA KING does back home in Sacramento on the West Coast. As I said, I hear grumblings, but what I want to hear are shouts above an exciting roar:
“THE DELTA QUEEN IS SAVED! HOORAY!”
These days I spend many hours reposting pictures I’ve collected from the internet over the past 20 years, which gives me a fresh perspective on a time not as far removed from the present as most people may imagine. For example, I was born closer to the start of the Civil War than the beginning of World War II is to the present — actually, more like five years before the first shells exploded over Fort Sumpter. So the “Golden Age of Steamboating” was not in the “dark ages.” Or, as my friend Cap’n John Hartford so aptly put it, “All but a moment in time.”
Captain Frederick Way, Jr. has been more than a whisper in my ear lately. Actually, I often use Captain Way’s words from both his steam packet and towboat directories to accompany my posts on Facebook. After all, these publications are the two most authoritative steamboat references available anywhere. In real life, the late author and steamboat man was especially encouraging to all of us up-and-coming younger ones following in his footsteps, as well as earlier generations of river men and women. Whenever he had the chance to write about any of us, usually in the S&D Reflector, the river-related publication discussed in last week’s column, Capt. Fred tried his best to inspire and motivate the young person he’d written about. Not everyone was as gracious as he was.
Around Aurora Bend on the Middle Ohio River, Mile 496, the river community is still waiting and wondering what became of the Showboat MAJESTIC everyone was expecting to come ’round the bend’ at any minute. Things have gotten awfully quiet lately. Then too, some wags were asking about the fate of the Rafter CLYDE, my former paddle-wheeler that’s been in limbo for the last several months, sitting with the doors open, exposed to the elements on a trailer at Dave Miller’s marina on West Hogan Creek. We understand a former steamboat pilot looked at the paddle-wheeler a couple of times, but before he could move on the boat, a local fellow already involved in acquiring river properties grabbed it. Here’s another classic case of “let’s wait and see what happens.”
Maybe if that showboat finally comes to town, someone will concoct a theatrical presentation of all the goings-on at Aurora Bend this past year and sell tickets. I’ll buy a couple, for sure.
After unsuccessfully searching for the Rabbit Hash General Store outlet in Lawrenceburg, right upriver from Aurora Bend, I finally found it with the help of “Shanty Boat Mike” Fletcher, who said it was “located in the alley by the Liberty Theater.” While on business in “Whiskey City,” as L’burg likes to be known, I discovered the recently renovated structure. Built in 1893 as home to the local Liedertafel Society, originally a group of “men who met together on fixed evenings for the practice of vocal music in four parts, drinking forming part of the entertainment. They arose during the political depression caused by Napoleon’s rule in Germany; the first, consisting of only 24 members, was founded by Zelter in Berlin on Dec. 28, 1808,” according to a search engine.
Once inside, I found it crammed with a variety of plunder, much like the original general store, but without any merchandise specifically from the store in the tiny town across the river from Rising Sun. As I’ve always done at the original general store, I studied their root beer selection in the chill cabinet before picking a couple so I could say I bought something.
At the checkout, a sweet lady, at least a generation younger, as was everyone there, ran up my purchase. I let it out that I’d been the Senior Captain of the humongous gambling boat dock across the Ohio River from Rabbit Hash, and that I consider myself a former resident of that glamorous Kentucky berg known far and wide as “the Center of the Universe.”
“Oh, you’re Captain Don,” she gushed.
“How’d you know my name?” I asked. “Did you read it on the post office wall?”
Then “Sharon,” as I remember her saying, added, “Captain Ron Abdon mentioned you. He said you were the Captain of the DELTA QUEEN.”
Just the sound of the name of perhaps the once most famous steamboat in the world unlocked closed doors again, and a conversation quickly developed around that cherished name until a new group of customers happened into the room. By the sudden change in tone, I realized it was my cue to graciously depart after basking in my few minutes of celebrity. So, as quickly as I could, I left, thinking I should return —perhaps with Captain Ron or Shanty Boat Mike.
If things keep moving positively around the Aurora Bend, Lawrenceburg Reach, and Rabbit Hash area, this may be the place to be on the river.
Again, another case of “let’s wait and see what happens.”
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.
Click here to order your Captain Don Sanders’ ‘The River’ now.