The riverboat captain is a storyteller, and Captain Don Sanders tells the stories of his long association with the river – from discovery to a way of love and life. This is part of a long and ongoing story. It first appeared in September 2019.
By Captain Don Sanders
Specially for NKyTribune
What a time we live in! Without the internet and especially Facebook, how could I know what is happening across the river? My life on the river today revolves around completing several projects on the rafter CLYDE so that it will be irresistible when the right buyer comes along. I don’t even have time to watch the “bugs” dancing on the water’s surface. I’m so engrossed in painting and tidying up my paddle steamer that I haven’t noticed them.
In the area upstream of the CLYDE, Chris Henderson, a still-active US Navy Seabee, kayaks down the Ohio River, I read in a post. Otherwise, Chris would have paddled past Laughery Creek without checking my site and I wouldn’t have known about it. I even sent him a message to stop by if he was staying in the area. He couldn’t miss the CLYDE, he was told, it was the only boat with a bright red paddle wheel in the marina.
Just a few years ago, another kayaker stopped by my then boat, the GRAND VICTORIA II, in Rising Sun, IN, about 10 miles downstream from CLYDE’s current mooring. That was the beginning of a lasting friendship between Kim Cornell and me. After her brave solo adventure with only her dog for company, Kim returned to Pittsburgh and wrote a long book about her experiences, “A River Runs Through Me, An American Adventure.” There’s even a chapter that’s mostly about me. Even more exciting, Kim worked hard on the river in her home port and got a captain’s license! In the cyber world, however, she’s best known as “Yin Zer.” Make that Captain Yin Zer if you like.
Down in the lower Mississippi, I’ve read from tugboat friends that the river channel is filled with silt after months of flooding, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has closed the river below Memphis to dig a gorge deep enough for the barges and boats to navigate. The Victoria Bend seems to be particularly problematic, but this has always been a dangerous stretch of river, even in the best water.
A phone call to Captain Clarke C. “Doc” Hawley, my long-time friend and mentor in steamship matters, revealed that the water level in New Orleans was 6.1 feet after months of double-digit water levels. Of course, every conversation with Captain Doc is a trip down memory lane on our well-traveled journey. We remembered Captain John Emory Edgington, an elderly steamboatman in his late 80s, when I worked with him as a seventeen-year-old deckhand aboard the steamer AVALON in 1959.
Doc remembered Captain Edgington saying, “My boy Clyde drove me to the dock and I want you to meet him.”
Expecting to find a guy his own age, Doc ventured onto the dance floor, but instead of a younger man, he discovered a white-haired gentleman well over sixty. Doc had not taken into account the huge age difference: Captain Edgington was born in 1970 and his “boy” was his.
In fact, I often use Captain Emory as an example of how short the time span was between the 18th century and the present. Most young people mistakenly think that that time span was just one long, slow, incomprehensible period of time. But I say to them, “Shake my hand.” When they do that, I explain to them that 60 years ago I shook the hand of Captain Edgington, who was then 88 years old. Then I say to the young student, “Captain Edgington certainly shook hands with men born in the late 18th century. So you see, from now to the 18th century, it’s only three handshakes. From you to me. From me to the captain, and from him to them.” This illustration always leaves a lasting impression on a younger audience.
Before Captain Hawley and I concluded our conversation, we brought up the names of several other rivermen from the past, whom we had not only known, but with whom we had also served on fire-breathing steamboats on the inland waterways:
Albert Sidney Kelley was a boy growing up on his family farm, Kelley’s Landing, on the Ohio River above Louisville, Kentucky, just across the river from Bethlehem, Indiana. Kelley told me that the palatial steamboat CITY of LOUISVILLE always passed by the family dock when it came to or went to Cincinnati. Whenever his mother wanted fresh fish for the family dinner, she would send young Albert down to the river bank with a large wicker basket, which he would place in a strategic spot on the bank and await the arrival of the fast steamboat.
The CITY of LOUISVILLE was so fast (over 20 miles per hour) and huge (over 300 feet long) that as it passed it sucked water from the banks and stranded fish on the shore. As the water receded, Albert ran along what had been below the surface of the pool before the steamer passed and tossed the stranded fish toward the wicker basket. Once he had had enough, the basket, full of fresh, wriggling fish, was quickly brought home. That evening the Kelley family sat down to a delicious meal of Ohio River catfish.
Captain Doc also reminded me that Captain Kelley had told him that as he grew older, he was tired of “looking up a mule’s rear all day.” When the CITY of LOUISVILLE stopped on the shore near the family farm, he boarded, begged for a job, and became a watchman on that famous ship. Built in 1894, the CITY of L’VILLE lasted until the ice in January 1918, when she and her sister ship, the CITY of CINCINNATI, crushed at the Cincinnati Public Landing while my grandmother Edith watched from her kitchen window at the corner of Greenup and Front Streets across the river in Covington.
In another week, the sons and daughters of the Pioneer Rivermen will make their annual pilgrimage to their sacred sanctuary at the confluence of the Muskingum and Ohio Rivers in Marietta, Ohio. This year, however, the guest speaker will be none other than Phillip Johnson, the “chief engineer” of the CLYDE and my traveling companion at last year’s reunion to hear Cap’n Doc speak. Phillip also owns ten percent of the venerable steamer DELTA QUEEN and he will enlighten an eager audience on what he and his fellow owners are doing to get the QUEEN back in service and reinstate her into the rapidly growing overnight passenger boat traffic on the Mississippi and its tributaries.
In the meantime, you can find me either on board the CLYDE or on Facebook, where I keep up with everything happening from Pittsburgh to Cairo, St. Paul to New Orleans, and everywhere in between. Either way, look for me, give me a like, but
“Be extra careful, that’s a big river out there!”
Captain Don Sanders is a river man. He was a riverboat captain with the Delta Queen Steamboat Company and the Rising Star Casino. He learned to fly an airplane before learning to drive a “machine” and becoming a captain in the USAF. He is an adventurer, historian and storyteller. Now a columnist for the NKyTribune, he tells his stories about his childhood in Covington and his tales of the river. Hold on tight for the ride – the river never looked so good.
Enjoy Captain Don Sanders’ stories about the river – in the book.
ORDER YOUR RIVER BOOK HERE
Captain Don Sanders The River: From river rat to steamboatman, from the “magical river trip” to a 65-year adventure is now available for $29.95 plus handling and applicable taxes. Published by NKyTribune, this beautiful hardcover book contains 264 pages of captivating stories, packed with hundreds of images from Captain Don’s collection – reflecting his meticulous journaling, unmatched storytelling skills and attention to detail. This historically significant book is perfect for any river lover’s collection.
You can order your book by mail from Northern Kentucky Tribune — or you can purchase the book at all Roebling Books locations, as well as the Behringer Crawford Museum and St. Elizabeth Healthcare gift shops.
Order your book “The River” by Captain Don Sanders here.
