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The River: 51 years ago, Capt. said he’d always ‘have a job,’ so after stint in the USAF, he made a phone call


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

Fifty-one years ago this week, on 28 December 1969, I separated from the U. S. Air Force after four years and three months of active duty. Within a couple more days, Captain Ernest E. Wagner, Master of the Steamer DELTA QUEEN, and I were on the telephone sharing the news that I was out and ready to return to the QUEEN. Just weeks before my military enlistment in September 1965, I left the DELTA QUEEN in St. Louis and flew home, coincidently, with Mrs. Letha Greene, the President of Greene Line Steamers, the owners of the boat, and her daughter Jane.

A WWII veteran himself, “Big Cap” was surprised that I would leave what he considered a “cushy job” as a Captain (O-3) in the USAF. Nonetheless, Cap’n Wagner rehired me over the phone with instructions to report to the home office for airfare to New Orleans where the DELTA QUEEN resided in winter rehab at the Dixie Machine wharf on the Industrial Canal.

Captain Ernest E. Wagner, Master of the Steamer DELTA QUEEN, and I were on the telephone sharing the news that I was out and ready to return to the QUEEN.

A decade earlier, I showed up unannounced aboard the excursion steamboat, the AVALON, at LaCrosse, Wisconsin, after an arduous 24-hour bus ride from Cincinnati. Leaving my grip at the top of the stairs on the dancefloor, I spied Cap at the opposite end of the deck, standing next to the bandstand. Treading carefully around the edges of the highly-polished, maple-inlain, wooden floor, I boldly strode up to the surprised big man and asked if he had a job for me. Much to my relief and delight, Cap replied:

“You’ll always have a job with me.”

Several years before I began “decking” on the AVALON, I rode the steamboat during summer days in the Cincinnati harbor without meeting the vessel’s illustrious Master. While the boat was “playing” Cincy, Captain Wagner took the opportunity for some badly-needed time at home with his family at nearby New Richmond, Ohio, just a few miles east of the Queen City.

His relief, Captain Arthur J. “Red” Schletker, and I became fairly friendly while I often ride with him in the pilothouse with my dad, Jess Sanders, Jr., My father, then head of the Covington, Kentucky Traffic Division, ensured plenty of parking was available for patrons of the steamboat when it landing at the foot of Greenup Street on annual “Covington Day” excursions to the old Coney Island Amusement Park and back. Early each spring, a thick passel of complimentary Steamer AVALON passes printed on yellow paper arrived in the mail for more boat rides than we ever took in a single season.

A decade earlier, I showed up unannounced aboard the excursion steamboat, the AVALON, at LaCrosse, Wisconsin.

Within days after I graduated from high school, Captain Red accompanied me to the Cincinnati Public Landing for a job interview with Mr. Amol Warner, the AVALON’s Chief Steward. After being hired, and just as I was leaving for home to ready myself to return in the morning as a Cabin Boy in the Steward’s Department, a ruckus broke out among the crewmen busily loading several thousand cases of Burger Beer deep inside the AVALON’s hold.

A giant mountain of a man dressed in a Hawaiian-print shirt was causing the disturbance. In the February 04, 2018 edition of this column, I recalled my first encounter with that big fellow:

Without warning, the intense activity suddenly stopped, and the area exploded with thunderous cheers and shouts as a giant of a man came unannounced into the room. He stood six-feet and several more inches above the deck and looked to weigh at least some 250 pounds, but, overall, he was fit and well-proportioned for his size. The colossus wore tan slacks and a flowered, Hawaiian-print shirt, and judging by the excitement and the widespread commotion that filled the room, the man was endeared to all. Even the glum Mr. Warner seemed excited to see him.

Captain Arthur J. “Red” Schletker, and I became fairly friendly while I often ride with him in the pilothouse.

A broad smile stretched across the face of the big fellow who went directly to the table where Mr. Warner was seated and took two large spoons; put them together in one great paw and began beating and clicking them together, up and down, between his free hand and the broad side of his body in such a rhythmic way that music suddenly filled the air to the joyful shouts and applause of all assembled there. A deep tone arose from within the man as he began singing in tune to the tapping of the spoons, and I could hear the words … “Katie went to the well…”

“Who’s that big guy,” I asked the closest person standing nearby.

Looking puzzled, he turned and answered, “Man…don’t you know?… That’s Captain Wagner!”

Within six months of my return to the DELTA QUEEN following serving our nation, I was second-in-command of the DELTA QUEEN after Captain Wagner jumped me over several competent young junior officers. The Skipper immediately started training me to be in charge of the QUEEN within his shadow. He assigned me to his watch opposite the First Mate, Captain Clarke C. “Doc” Hawley, my former boss and mentor on the AVALON with Captain Wagner. Little did I know that Captain Doc would soon leave the DELTA QUEEN in April of 1970, and Cap’n Wagner was grooming me to take his place.

Within six months of my return to the DELTA QUEEN after serving the nation, I was second-in-command of the DELTA QUEEN.

After Captain Hawley departed for the Steamer BELLE of LOUISVILLE, Captain Wagner felt confident-enough in my ability and satisfied with what he taught me, to assign me the First Mate’s slot without me possessing a U. S. Coast Guard-issued license. In that situation, an older licensed officer “carried the paper” while I performed the mate’s duties.

By June of 1970, I “sat” for my mate’s test at the Louisville, Kentucky Coast Guard office, received my Unlimited Inland Mate’s papers, and rushed the 98 miles back to Cincinnati to relieve the old-timer “carrying the license,” and became the official mate and second-in-command of the DELTA QUEEN under my long-time mentor and commander, Captain Ernest E. Wagner. All that was heady-enough, but it paled in comparison when, within another year and a half, I accompanied Cap to the Cincinnati Coast Guard office and signed the official government Enrollment Papers as the “Alternate Master of the DELTA QUEEN” with him.

Now, that was far-out, as was the expression of the day. FAR… FAR-OUT!

Ironically, Captain Wagner died on my birthday in 1979. Though forty years have passed, Captain Wagner is as much alive in my thoughts as he was when we were together aboard the steamboats on the river. He was a bigger-than-life personality, but at heart, Cap was a basic man with an ample supply of good common “horse sense” who knew how and when to use it. Most of all, Cap’n Wagner was a natural-born leader and a problem solver. His ability to reduce a distressful situation to its simplest terms and then find the easiest solution in the least amount of time was among his greatest strengths.

What more can be expected of a Captain… a real Captain? 

I… signed the official government Enrollment Papers as the “Alternate Master” of the DELTA QUEEN.

Captain Wagner is as much alive in my thoughts as he was when we were together aboard the steamboats on the river.

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.  


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5 Comments

  1. Ronald Sutton says:

    Capt. Wagner is one of the Few, I have Never seen anything written or spoken against. A True Giant.

  2. Miss Ruth says:

    S w e e t! I sure miss the River, the Steamboats, New Orleans & Capt. Clarke C. Hawley, Capt. Roddy Hammet, Capt. Sam Centanni, Capt. Villiers, & Capt. Nichols & the rest of the old Crew. Thank you Capt. Don Sanders! Have a Happy New Year all y’all, on earth or in steamboat heaven!

  3. Miss Ruth says:

    ..while i’m at it may as well list some more Crew…Bobby “Hollywood” Heyn, J.J. Allen, Mike Allen, Mike French, “Big Beck” Allen, Donna & Nee Nee Neely, Barbara White, Scotty Viegas, Larry Beard, David Mesler, Norma Switzer, Miss Geneva, Miss Edna…fun fun times! & Merchant Marine Capt. David Link!

  4. Cornelia Reade-Hale says:

    Great memories you have Capt Don. I remember you in 1971 and the wedding cruise where you were Master and Best Man.

  5. Cap'n Don says:

    Thanks for the great comments – those were the days, weren’t they!

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