The River: Clyde has a boatload of mascots; gift of an ‘Old Crow’ from River Rat Barb is newest one

The riverboat captain is a storyteller, and Captain Don Sanders will be sharing 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

The Rafter CLYDE acquired another mascot this past week thanks to Barbara Hameister, a member of the all-lady pack of River Rats of the sort talked about in last week’s column. Last Saturday, my son Jesse and I made a quick dash to see the model boat exhibit at BB Riverboat’s new mooring facility in Newport. As we were about to leave, Barb approached with a bag. Reaching inside; she disclosed she had “something special” for me and pulled out nearly a foot-tall, soft plastic replica of a distinguished-looking crow dressed in a tuxedo and top hat.

Instantly, I understood Barb’s good intentions when she presented me with the trademark logo of the legendary Kentucky bourbon whiskey, Old Crow. Though these distilled spirits were said to be Mark Twain’s favorite, the acceptance of the replica had nothing to do with either Twain or Kentucky bourbon. Instead, the plastic crow was symbolic of a much larger Old Crow Captain Ernest E. Wagner kept as a mascot in the pilothouse of the DELTA QUEEN. Barb knew I would appreciate the relationship between my mentor and Captain’s mascot and the smaller replica she’d brought along from Manchester, Ohio, especially for me. Graciously, I accepted Ms. Hameister’s gift which I promptly showed to those around me; saying it was the trophy for “Best of Show – just for showing up.”

Within a few days, Barb’s Old Crow found a niche within the pilothouse of my sternwheeler in company with a smaller Old Crow that’s been nesting in the wheelhouse for some time. Down below in the cabin of the CLYDE, the mascot krewe includes Captain Brownie Bear, Pilot JoJo-the Monkey, Miss Lulu Belle, Mate Sweet Pea, Snake, Katt the Purser, and Chief Steward Ratt. Every riverboat needs mascots, and the CLYDE has a boatload.

Back in the late 1960s, when I was away from the DELTA QUEEN in the service in the military, Captain Paul Underwood presented the large plastic crow to Captain Wagner after the BELLE of LOUISVILLE crossed the finish line ahead of Wagner and the DELTA QUEEN in the classic “Great Steamboat Race” during Derby Week in Louisville. Cap’n Paul meant to insult the losing captain by insinuating that the QUEEN’s Master could “eat crow,” but, instead, Wagner proudly accepted the Old Crow and adopted it as the official juju of the DELTA QUEEN.

Captain Clarke C. “Doc” Hawley hand-lettered “DELTA QUEEN MASCOT” on one dark wing and the Old Crow stood defiantly in the side window of the wheelhouse overlooking all beneath it until long after Captain Wagner’s departure from the steamboat he commanded for many years.

Living animals were often aboard an old-time steamboat instead of the “stuffed” variety. But because of the harsh environment and confinement, critters were more challenging to care for than their silent, non-eating, and non-defecating cousins.

Captain Howard Tate told of one steamboat he piloted with an alive, live-aboard monkey as the boat’s master’s favorite companion. According to Cap’n Tate:

“That wretched monkey despised my guts. As I worked opposite the Captain; I was on watch when the Old Man was in bed. That’s when that damned monkey did everything it could to irritate me. It got in my suitcase; tore up my clothes, and even crapped in my bed. Though I wanted to kick that SOB overboard, I couldn’t because the Skipper loved that monkey more than he did his only son.”

“Then one hot, sunny afternoon while we were downbound on a lonely stretch of the Mississippi River, I looked up at the Spreader Bar between the smokestacks that sat up high near level with the top of the stacks. There was that damn monkey ‘a climbing around like he was in the jungle. Carefully, as I knew the old man was off-watch asleep, I waited until that critter got close to the whistle mounted on that high bar – and at the right moment, I gave the whistle one quick blast!”

“Straight up into the air flew that god-forsaken creature… and down inside the chimney, it tumbled!”

“The owner looked everywhere for his monkey, and though he suspected foul play at first, he eventually conceded his pet mascot most-likely fell overboard. And who was I to tell the truth to that heartbroken Captain?”

Perhaps the strangest animal mascot kept aboard a steamboat was the live alligator stowed in a wooden crate aboard the ill-fated steamer SULTANA. The boat, overloaded with some 2,000 survivors of the Civil War prison camps at Andersonville and Cahaba, Alabama, exploded its boilers at Paddy’s Hen and Chickens, a string of small islands above Memphis on the night of April 27, 1865. Though some 1,800 souls lost their lives that night, more even than on the TITANIC, only 17 days less than 47 years later, one desperate Union soldier pulled the gator from the wooden cage, killed it, and leaped into the freezing Mississippi River atop the floating crate and saved himself.

The second ISLAND QUEEN had a JoJo-the-Monkey, of the stuffed variety, in the pilothouse, according to what Captain Wagner once mentioned. Somewhere I recall seeing a picture of the elder JoJo, but he was likely lost in the explosion and fire of the beloved Cincinnati excursion steamboat at the foot of Wood Street in Pittsburgh just around noon on the ninth of September 1947 when I was in Miss Lee’s fourth-grade class at 8th District School, in Latonia, a suburb of Covington. It would be another five years before I found the river and where I yearned to spend most of the rest of my life.

Back aboard the CLYDE, I am offering for sale to that rare individual with the wherewithal and devotion to maintain it the way she demands, my collection of mascots will probably come ashore when I depart, for they’ll have no personal meaning to anyone other than me. If so, it will be the first time in nearly 28 years Captain Brownie and Pilot JoJo will be without a boating connection.

But from what I’ve heard from others in the Krewe, Sweet Pea, the young Lead Deckhand, and First Mate might be willing to remain aboard – especially if the new owner is seeking an experienced steamboat mascot.

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.