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
Captain Shawn Somers, a not-so-old boat buddy, and I just got off the phone. For the past hour and 46 minutes, we talked about boats and our other interests. Before our chat, I didn’t realize Shawn was a scrappin’ man who recycles metal. Why wouldn’t he be? He owns his own marina on the Ohio River in western Cincinnati. Scrapping and the river go hand in glove.
Captain John Beatty, an owner of the river’s premier salvage company for many years, scrapped barges brought up from river bottoms across the inland waters and knew the names of scrapyard owners from Pittsburgh to Memphis. When I was starting my Can-Do Recycling operation and needed a better market, Cap’n John tipped me off to a buyer in Louisville who accelerated my company’s growth and may be part of why my old place is still in business some four decades later — of course, doing business under different owners with a slightly variant spelling of the company name.
Shawn asked what so many others have asked: “Why did you get out of the metals game?” As always, I respond, “Because I wanted to get back on the river.”
On Monday, April 1, 1991, I was in the Monkey Wrench Corner Cafe, our bar on the Can-Do property, where “pickers” turned in their scale tickets for cash and often left with a tall 40 oz Blatz. Early-morning TV featured Vanna White severing a silken ribbon to open the first casino riverboat on the Mississippi River. As I watched, I realized an entirely new venue had just opened, with a snip of Ms. White’s scissors, for licensed riverboat operators like myself. Within a relatively short time, our entire recycling business was history, and I was back on the river.
After a misstep involving packing up the family and plunder and moving to Natchez on the high loess bluffs in southwestern Mississippi, I became the Mate on the DIAMOND LADY at the very casino Vanna White opened a year to the day before. Four more “gambling boats” and nearly 20 years later, I retired from the riverboat casino biz; around the same time, it began falling apart. Soon, nearly all the licensed marine crew were discharged, and the boats became fodder for the metal recyclers. The old Lawrenceburg, Indiana Argosy boat, though, was sunk off the Alabama Gulf coast to become an artificial reef for fish, turtles, and other aquatic life.
In a relatively short time, the casino boat industry vanished like a flash in the pan. Unbelievably, the traditional steam paddlewheel overnight cruisers were finished, too. With hardly time for a farewell hug, gone, too, were the MISSISSIPPI QUEEN, DELTA QUEEN, and the AMERICAN QUEEN, along with the AMERICAN EMPRESS, COUNTESS, and DUTCHESS. Kaput.
Of course, newer overnight “ships” are crowding the market, replacing the boats so many traditionalists knew and loved. My U.S. Postal Service mailbox stays crammed with their advertising brochures, but they lie unopened, piled on the ottoman. Too rich for my retirement budget. However, friends employed aboard them tell me they’re doing very well. Good news for all. But that’s all I know — and likely need to know.
Perhaps Shawn and I mentioned the ferry that crosses from Rising Sun, Indiana, to Rabbit Hash. Maybe we didn’t. Cap’n Somers, though, played a major role in getting the ferryboat in place and operational. Earlier today, I saw a notice stating the ferry was “closed until further notice.” Another convenience many of us took for granted is likely on the way out.
It’s hard to imagine the role ferries once played on the river when we view them through the avaricious lens of the second quarter of the 21st Century. Not long ago, almost every pair of opposing towns across an obstructing waterway had a ferry connection. Check the DNA of older families living on opposite sides of the river, and surprisingly, many are kin. As someone said, “They’d go across the river and marry a second or third cousin instead of marrying someone closer on their side of the river.”
Automobiles and cheap gasoline changed all that. Gas prices are outrageous today, but all the little ferries are gone. Those young enough to live a few more decades will likely see the eventual outcome of this predicament, but for the rest of us, it won’t matter anyway.
Mercy! I just realized what today is — October 11 — a day to salute my brave, courageous mother, Anna Margaret, who, after an exceptionally difficult pregnancy, birthed her first child, a 9 lb. 3 ½ oz. boy born at 4:18 in the morning. Although I won’t say the exact year, the child was born closer to the start of the American Civil War than a baby born today would be to the start of World War II.
After that, I need some time to reflect…
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.