The River: A week on a ‘quiet’ river, turning cold, was really packed with activity — and work

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

Last Sunday, the 13th of October at the former McKinley Elementary School, now the Irish Heritage Center in Cincinnati, I received my first recognition as a “writer” from others dabbling in words. A new book, RIPARIAN, a collection of prose, poetry, and photography by numerous scribblers and camera clickers inspired by the Ohio River, “came off the ways” at the old Eastern Avenue schoolhouse.

Editors Sherry Cook Stanforth and Richard Hague, both professors at Thomas More University, saw fit to include a column from this series written for the Tribune. It’s encouraging to see one’s words printed in book form for the first time.

Several authors read their works from the RIPARIAN. Perhaps the most notable, to me anyway, was Mrs. Dorothy Weil, some 90 years of age, the daughter of a steamboat pilot on the ISLAND QUEEN and the sister of Captain Jim Coomer, an old river pal-o-mine from aways ago. Back in ‘84, Jim and his high school students at the Cincinnati River Academy built the ADVENTURE GALLEY II for promoter Vaughn Wendling, a replica of a 1792 flatboat that brought the first settlers into what became Gallipolis, Ohio.

After Cap’n Jim bid Vaughn and the crew of two their “adieus” at Memphis, I met the AG II in a cotton field at Helena, Arkansas, 40 miles further down the river. The next several days found me at the helm guiding the wooden craft with the grass roof through the tribulations of the Lower Mississippi River until we arrived safely at the New Orleans World Exposition, where the boat became a floating exhibit at the fair.   

The day following the RIPARIAN book promotion, the venerable BELLE of LOUISVILLE boarded a full load of river rats and buffs for the annual Louisville to Madison, Indiana round trip aboard the 105-year-old steamboat.

Sixty years earlier, I defied the demands of an angry father and a crying mother and “ran away from home” on that same steamboat, then named the Steamer AVALON. I’d like to have been aboard the BELLE, but I’ve always been a crewman, and never much of a passenger. Besides, the CLYDE, my paddlewheeler, had me captivated by painting the outside guards on the Main Deck. I couldn’t have gotten away had I wanted.

According to Francis Xavier “Frank” Prudent, steamboat authoritarian extraordinaire, he and all those aboard the BELLE had a “marvelous adventure” as exciting as though it was everyone’s first trip aboard a river steamer. The luster never seems to dull when it comes to steamboatin’.   

Down on the Kentucky River at Frankfort, the Capital of the Commonwealth, this weekend, Tom “Cap’n Walnut” Schiffer and Aaron Richardson sponsored the first “Smoke on the Kentucky – A Steamboat Gathering” event. Walnut brought his newest steamboat, the RACHEL Z, and his 109-year-old, MISS BLUE. Aaron purchased the pocket steamer MISSY from Tom earlier this year, and they couldn’t wait to have their first steamboat rendezvous with the three authentic steamers.

These small boats may not be the BELLE of LOUISVILLE or the DELTA QUEEN, but they are not-so-distant cousins with live steam coursing through their metallic veins.

With the weather fast-changing from 95-degree blasts to below seasonable temperatures in one day, my post during the week was aboard the CLYDE, where I had painting to finish before winter winds canceled the opportunity to lay out another coat of Valspar Anti-Rust Armor to the decks.

So, this past Monday and Tuesday saw me down on my hands and knees grinding, cleaning, and cutting-in before the outside guards, along the sides, got a healthy coat of sand infused paint that acts as a “non-skid” material. Slippery decks on a boat can be killers. 

Wednesday, the weather grew cold and damp; typical for autumn October days and the Ohio River. But I outfoxed the weather with freshly painted decks completed for another season.    

A recent addition to the hardware of the CLYDE is a brass signal cannon of about a century-old found in a pile of scrap metal I always search as a former metal recycler. Old habits are to break after nearly eleven years in the business.

In the golden age of steamboats, practically every steamer carried a brass cannon to announce their coming. Often as early as an hour, or more, before they appeared in sight of a river town, a thunderous blast alerted folks of an approaching steamboat. Having a thunder-maker aboard a paddlewheeler is about as natural as a spotted pooch on a fire truck.

The brass blaster lacked a gun carriage. Again, it was Captain Walnut, the author of several books on black powder firearms, who guided me toward drawings of carriages appropriate for a marine setting for CLYDE’s twenty-eight-inch-long, 32-pound artillery piece.

The project needed a wood craftsman of extraordinary ‘caliber,’ sorry, pun intended, and fortunately, the CLYDE already had such a woodsmith who crafted several assignments for the paddlewheeler. Rick Starker of Dream WoodWorks in Vevay, Indiana gladly accepted the venture, adding:

“Of all my customers, your projects are always the most challenging.”  

Rick flew into fabricating the oak carriage, built with lumber milled over 150 years ago, with such vigor, that retrieving the finished product may break the craftsman’s heart. To date, I’ve delayed picking up the gun and carriage and have yet to see it in person, but from what I have seen in photos Rick sent to my phone, I know that I will be excited when I see CLYDE’s new gun gear for the first time. 

When I finally get to Rick’s DreamWorks shop, another challenge awaits him. The stern nameboard on the CLYDE needs replacing. After we load the cannon aboard “Black Beauty,” my 1995 pickup truck, we will unload the old stern sign to rechallenge Rick. He will be routing new letters into vintage wood reading, “CLYDE.” period included.

And instead of “WABASHA, MN,” beneath the name, as the old nameboard reads,  I am asking that he change the port o’ call to “ALMA, WS,” where I bought the sternwheeler, and yes, “WS” is the official U. S. Coast Guard for Wisconsin, and not “WI” as is the postal service way.

Other than this, the river’s been quiet last past week… and let’s hope it stays that way.

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.