Hello, steamboat enthusiasts!
It’s Bodine here, finally able to connect to a wireless broadband tower to report in from the Great Steamboat Grace of 2006.
I’m sorry it’s taken me so long to post on this blog! As it turns out, the lower stretch of the Mississippi river has no wireless broadband towers. I swear, World War III could break out and we wouldn’t know it! Of course, that is part of the charm of traveling on the steamboats; being totally disconnected from normal reality.
We’re currently tied up at Vicksburg, Mississippi, another location with enough important history to keep a panel of professors arguing for months. The city of Vicksburg is actually now located on the Yazoo river canal. In 1876 the Mississippi river changed it’s course without consulting anyone – as it occasionally does – and left the famous city of Vicksburg high and dry. Imagine. The famous “Gibraltar of the Mississippi,” the town about which Abraham Lincoln once remarked, in the middle of the American civil war, “Who controls Vicksburg, controls the Mississippi River,” being abandoned by the river itself!
It wasn’t until 1903 that the Corps of Engineers managed to build a river canal from the new edge of the river over to the city landing… the Yazoo River Canal. And that’s where we are right now.
I must tell you we had our first of three real races two days ago, and it was a nail-biter!
I tried to upload an account of that race from an internet café in Vicksburg, but only managed to squeeze through a misspelled headline. (It’s amazing how much interactive feedback that provoked on inbound cell phone calls to people onboard both boats!... I love that... but promise to always use my spell-check feature in the future!)
SPEED RACE #1
It is so amazing to see these two beautiful steamboats traveling side-by-side up river.
Mostly we are just sister steamboats paddling along, avoiding the commercial barges passing by us. But during our 11-day Great Steamboat Race experience, three different times we line the boats up exactly, and race from one spot to the next in the river, to determine who is the fastest steamboat of the two… and which steamboat has the best river pilots onboard. There’s a real talent to finding the slow-moving water in the river (the “slack water,” they call it), and some pilots are better than others at doing so.
The boat that wins 2 of the 3 race legs will take proud possession of the “golden antlers,” symbolic of being the fastest steamboat on the Mississippi. Currently the “golden antlers” are proudly displayed on the bow of the Delta Queen, just below the pilot house, as she won 2 of the 3 speed races last year.
Well, four days ago, at 2:00pm, it was a gorgeous day on the river, and the captains decided, for the first of the speed races, we’d race from “Dead Man’s Bend” to “Washout Bayou.” Honest. These are actual physical locations on the river. And, of course, as is the case with everything here on the Mississippi river, there’s some incredible history involved.
165 years ago, during the heyday of the ramstudginous, rootin’ tootin’ steamboat era, the river landings were lawless and often violent places. The most famous of these rough & tumble river landings was Natchez-under-the-Hill, a river landing located just below the beautiful bluffs overlooking the river at Natchez, Mississippi. It has been accurately reported there were brawls and knife fights virtually every day at Natchez-under-the-Hill. It was too violent even for the local city police, who rarely ventured down Silver Street, which stretched from the top of the bluffs down to the river’s edge. It was a bustling commercial stop for the steamboats, and also a hangout for cutthroats, thieves & brazen mustached gamblers. And, with all that violence, there was often a dead body to be disposed of! Mostly they were simply thrown into the river to be washed down stream. Geographically, the sharp turn in the river at Deadman’s Bend creates a whirlpool eddy at the river’s edge that would often trap the floating bodies. Many of them were hauled out of the river at that point, with knives firmly stuck in their bodies.
And right there, at Dead Man’s Bend, is where we decided to start the first of our three speed races.
The Delta Queen got off to a great running start, and jumped out to an early lead over the Mississippi Queen. The MQ reportedly has much more power but also carries a lot more weight. It can take the MQ longer to get up to speed from a dead stop. The DQ’s early lead got the crew and the passengers really excited. It doesn’t take much, as the Delta Queen is known for its enthusiastic spirit during these competitive proceedings. During the speed race they had the most wonderful party out on the bow of the Texas deck, complete with the jazz band playing outside and the crew members performing as cheerleaders waving blue & white pom-poms.
But, as we approached “Washout Bayou,” which was the designated finish line, the Mississippi Queen really poured on the steam, took the inside slack water, and moved slowly but surely into a neck & neck position in the final half mile of the race. It was very dramatic and served to rile up the energy & excitement of everyone on both boats. Being the judge of the event, I had to line myself up on the front railing of the bow of the boat to accurately judge who would cross the landmark first.
The Mississippi Queen won by only 20 yards!... the closest speed race between the two in many years.
Losing such a close river race only dampened the party spirit onboard the Delta Queen for just a few minutes. Jazzou Jones, the beloved DQ cruise directory, and Bobby Schad, entertainer & riverlorian, sang some playful and wonderful duets with the jazz band, as we all continued to enjoy an absolutely gorgeous day of steamboatin’ on America’s greatest river.
