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. This column first appeared in February 2019.
By Captain Don Sanders
Special to NKyTribune
Devices used to cushion the blow between a boat’s hull and a dock, lock wall, or another boat: a bumper, or perhaps a fender, or even a possum.
Traditionally, they are artfully woven requiring many fabricated strands of rope or line, and the use of tools such as fids, marlin spikes, knives, or hatchets. To construct one requires an acquired knowledge, usually passed down from a master to an apprentice, and many hours of hand labor rough on a weaver’s manicure.
Although we, in younger days, wove all our possums the old-fashioned way, and on one occasion, our sole occupation on a steamboat dead-heading on the Ohio River from Pittsburgh to Cincinnati, was “birthing” these fat rope critters, it was our beloved Captain and Mentor, Capt. Ernest E. Wagner who taught us how we could make an efficient bumper in less than five minutes.
Hand-Woven Rope Bumpers
These bumpers, often called “possums,” are hand-braided, requiring several hours to weave, but we will show you how to make a comparable bumper in just minutes. Possums made by Aaron Richardson and gifted to the CLYDE..
No Cutting Required. To make a rope bumper in less than five minutes, first grab any length of line. No cutting is needed.
A Couple of Bights. Make two bights in the Line… or a “backwards-S”.
Getting Started With Turns. Take the first turn over the standing part.
Keep Turning… and make tight wraps toward the direction of the bight.
Make the Last tuck. Tuck the bitter end into the bight.
Get Everything Good & Tight. Tighten the wraps as tightly as you can using this tried-and-true method by holding the bumper between your two feet and pulling the standing line as hard as possible toward yourself. .. you can push away in the opposite direction with your legs. The object is to get the wraps as tight as possible.
The hardest thing, these days, is getting up and off the deck…
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 sharing 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.
Awesome. Thanks, Capt Don for sharing the art & the craft of quick “possum” weaving. I hope some other young men will learn besides the many you’ve already taught such as Aaron. Those are impressive he made.
It’s nice to know that if in a crunch ( a possum lost & lock looming) there’s a quick way to do these. There’s nothing scarier than the thunk & shudder or even worse sparks of boat against lock wall ,barge
or another vessel. I’ve observed & felt this,it doesn’t leave the memory.
Lol on the hard part. Could you use a low fishing stool ?
God bless you for sharing this skill.
Capt. Don’s tutorial takes me back to my decking days primarily on the Green and Ohio Rivers. My old (seemed at the time) lead deckhand learned me the art of “plaiting” a fancy possum. This was well after being learned to roll a quick bumper which we used daily in our short 100+/- mile, two lockings, ding-dong coal run. Downbound with loads and landing on the upper long walls with headway would wear out or cut off the bumpers regularly. As he said then, “Ain’t got time to have a pile of plaited possums laying around!”
Thanks to Captain Sanders for sharing this bit of river knowledge and skill and history. I figured that making these probably had to be a long drawn out process. Good to see there was a better, somewhat easier way.
Neat! This is an interesting tip that I will likely have little need to ever practice but now feel I should try JIC.
The circle is complete: Aaron contacted me online to teach him to make a ‘possum the old-fashioned way, the way I learned from the Mate Dick Weber aboard the Str. MISSISSIPPI QUEEN in 1978. We met up next to the MIKE FINK floating restaurant because I preferred a certain tree there that sported a branch at the height of choice to undo the six strands. (I took pictures.) However, this is the first time I see Aaron’s handiwork. Well done, Aaron!
I always look forward to Capt. Don’s awesome articles. Now I’ll be prepare next time I enter a lock 🙂