Amen brothers, and this is my last word unless provoked. It's, as Cap'n Betty well knew, all a matter of economics. Sentimentality aside, if a boat, or any other business, can't pull in the bucks and pay its own way, off to the scrap yard it goes.
I also paid my dues to help keep the DELTA QUEEN running back when they paid $35 a week and considered myself fortunate for the opportunity. But I also rankle when I hear the casino boat industry maligned by those who have not worked a single shift on one. Sure gambling has brought a lot of hurt, but it also created a moment in time on the river that is, and will remain, one of the most unique times in inland maritime history. Never do I hear anyone praising the boats for their style, quality of construction, or handling characteristics, and that is because the detractors do not have a clue.
Perhaps I been especially lucky (NPI), but all five of my casino boats have been gems. My first, the DIAMOND LADY, had the same spiritual qualities, or as we said in the seventies, “Vibes”, as I felt on the DELTA QUEEN. The EMERALD LADY, now the BELLE OF CINCINNATI, did not have that same feeling, but she was, and remains, a quality paddlewheeler that gives the BELLE OF LOUISVILLE a run for the horns each spring. PLAYERS RB I set the standard for the style of Leevac-built boats, one of which was owned by American Classic Voyages and still runs in the Pacific Northwest. The GRAND VICTORIA I reminded me of the railroad steamer PELICAN, and so I pretended that I was piloting that giant sidewheeler on the Mighty Mississippi although when I was midstream in the tiny Fox River, there was but fifty feet of water on each side of the boat. The GRAND VICTORIA II stands as THE classic Mississippi River-style diesel-electric sternwheeler, and never has another gam’lin boat been built to match the grace, beauty, and ease of handling as the GV2. It would be lovely if all these boats were steam, but from a mariners view, everyone is a classic.
Of course casino boats are noisy, some are smoky, others do not even have windows, and now they don’t cruise, and we all know that we are living on borrowed time, career-wise, but the past thirteen years have been a good ride and hope to still be around when it ends.
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