[Shipyard Sam]

Great stuff Cap'n Ted.

How about some of us digging into our memory banks and try to recall interesting terms, or sayings, that we heard along the river that we may still today. I will offer for starters:

"Check My Buckets"
In the days before sufficient electrical power and HVAC units to air-condition the far-reaching rooms on the DELTA QUEEN, individual window units were installed on the Sun Deck, especially for the AAA staterooms. These units, of course, discharged their condensation onto the deck making them dangerously slick, so Captain Wagner, being the inventive genius he was, hung #10 tin cans beneath the discharge spouts on the AC units and charged deckhands Ernest Johnson and Lewis "Red Rooster" Bayless the responsibility of periodically checking the buckets to make sure they did not overflow onto the deck.

It didn't take long for these gentlemen to realize that Big Cap had written them a free pass to get out of duties they wanted to avoid. So whenever something came up that they didn't wanted to do (like help the porters take on stores), one, or both, would immediately turn and head for the Sun Deck and say as they departed, "Got to go check ma buckets."

Sometimes I use this expression when I want to leave the pilothouse for a break and tell the Mate that I am heading below "to check my buckets." The most fun, of course, is retelling the story behind the expression and there-by keeping the language alive and passing along a bit of the rich river heritage that I have been fortunate enough to witness.

Across the Roof
On many of the steamboats, the way to the entrance of the pilothouse was across the roof to the door. The BELLE OF LOUISVILLE for example. Captain "Handsome Harry" Hamilton used the term to mean that he was heading down out of the pilothouse- often headed toward the galley. I find myself using this term today to mean that I intend to exit the boat via the outside deck and not down through the interior of the vessel.

Behind the Door
Another Handsome-Harryism that he used to ask the Crew Mess Steward what dessert was being offered that day. He explained that the cooks on the old-time steamboat kept the deserts in cabinets with solid doors that could be locked so that the crew did ravage the pies and cakes between meals.

So to ask "What's behind the door" is sometimes used by Y/T for the same purpose, but most often said to myself when I wondering what lies on the other side of the see-though glass doors of the desert locker.