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October 17, 2005 -- Vol. 5 Issue 42 Written by Jack R. Simpson (unless otherwise noted), owner of J.R. Simpson & Associates, Inc. and contributing editor to The Waterways Journal.
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 In This Newsletter:
Ever Wonder
Why do they sterilize the needle for lethal injections? A Personal Note From Jack
 It gets in my craw. If there is anything that gets in my craw, it is political correctness. It is all around us. It turns my stomach. What bothers me most is that it prevents people from saying what needs to be said. An unreasonable example of political correctness is, I believe, illustrated perfectly in the business of profiling criminals. Minorities are insulted, they say, when law enforcement uses profiling to help solve cases. My own way of explaining it is to present a “for instance.” If a full-blooded native American male (an Indian, as I prefer to call him) in war bonnet robs a bank and flees east in a black sedan, would it make sense to have law enforcement looking for anyone other than an Indian or someone dressed in a war bonnet? Yet there are those who are so thin-skinned that that is what they want. Look for a person driving a black sedan, they say. To put out the word to watch for an Indian is profiling, they say. But it makes sense, doesn’t it? One East Coast Governor says he doesn’t care if people dislike profiling or not. He thinks (as do many others, including me) that profiling is a legitimate tool in police work. If we know the robber is black, should we disregard one of the best means of identification? If he is Indian or Oriental, should we skip that vital fact as well? If he is white, we say so, and the whites don’t scream about racism or profiling. Yet, the whites are a race, are they not? Before anyone says “Shame on you!” let me say that I have associated with minorities all my life. I have native American cousins and I have associated with Sioux Indians on South Dakota reservations and get along fine with them. I have worked with blacks and gone to school with those of every race and always respected them and got along with them. If anyone has gotten a shaft from the human race, it is the Indians. Our expansion into the West was terrible and destructive to millions… as well as being unjust in most cases. But I am not racist. All I want is for us to return to the time when we called a spade a spade. And if minorities love this country as they say they do, they should expect good police work and work to protect it. Now I know that you know that I am leading up to something. I am. I have Jesse Jackson in mind. He is a man who has influence and could be such a power for progress among the blacks. But instead he thrives on controversy because it attracts followers who will support him, financially and otherwise. He, among several black leaders, is among the first to play the race card. Wouldn’t it be surprising if he walked up to President Bush and asked, “How can I help?” The Rev. Louis Farrakhan, who wants to rebuild the Muslim church, also plays the race card at every turn. He charges that whites blew up the levees to flood out blacks. How’s that for wild. Farrakhan should be labeled for what he is. He is no friend of the United States. Like Jackson, he could help the country if he would quit his drive for self importance and ask, “President Bush, how can I be of help?” Well, I could go on, but you know what I mean. So let me tie Jackson into a New Orleans event — Hurricane Katrina. I already tied Farrakhan into it. Jackson could very well be halfway right in some of what he says, but no more than that. I don’t know whether Jackson ascribes to rubbish that the floodwalls and levees were blown up to destroy blacks. He may or may not. He now has charged that a wayward barge destroyed the 17th Street Floodwall, I believe it was, and said the owners should be made to pay for the damage. Well, hurricanes can do big things, and I have no doubt that if hurricane winds or the storm surge can move casino boats weighing thousands of tons, they can surely move barges. So it is not inconceivable that a barge went over the wall. Whether it destroyed the wall or a levee is something I am not in a position to say. Jackson thinks he is. But my questions are these: Did not everyone become victims of the hurricane? If a store owner’s sign blew a mile and went through a picture window of a residence, would Jackson say that the store owner was negligent and should pay? This was a huge natural disaster, made worse by willful neglect of the very system that was meant to protect the New Orleans area. We run into willful neglect with the river system infrastructure all the time. Water Transportation funnels $15 billion annually into federal coffers as a result of customs paid on imported goods. Most of it is spent elsewhere in government — a golden nest egg, so to speak — while the Corps of Engineers struggle with an inadequate budget to accomplish what Congress mandates that it do. They are, in a sense, unfunded mandates, and many of the projects resulting from them will eventually be deauthorized or just never built because of the lack of money. Well, the Corps isn’t denying the barge charge any more than I am. They are studying all options. We know it is possible. Perhaps at some point in time we will know. I guess because there will be billions of dollars floating around, Jackson wants a piece of the action. The only way he can get it is to make controversy and trouble for Bush. What’s Happening To The Legislation On the Water Resource Development Act? (Editor’s note: The best way I can explain it is to print this message from the Midwest Area River Coalition verbatim. It tells what steps are being taken to achieve positive action in the U.S. Senate.) Historic Collaboration Includes Capitol Hill Action, Letter Campaign An unprecedented collaboration occurred late September when Audubon, MARC 2000, and the Upper Mississippi River Basin Association (UMRBA) announced their collective advocacy for immediate Senate action on the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA). MARC 2000 applauded Audubon, one of the nation’s most respected environmental organizations, for their support of the Corps’ dual-purpose plan, after more than a decade of study and increased degradation of infrastructure and ecosystem from the delay. The partnership highlights growing consensus for the workable plan, a 15-year phase of a 50-year river approach for the Upper Mississippi River System. “Audubon, MARC 2000, and UMRBA hail this call to action as a major step forward in addressing the needs of the Upper Mississippi River Basin. WRDA 2005 must be taken up by the Senate immediately,” stated Dan McGuiness, Director, Audubon Upper Mississippi River Campaign. The U.S. House of Representatives passed its WRDA in mid-July. The Senate bill has been awaiting floor action since it was reported out of committee in April. A letter from Audubon, MARC 2000, & UMRBA was distributed to each U.S. Senator on September 26. “The Upper Mississippi River provisions represent a bi-partisan, comprehensive, balanced, and long-overdue approach to advancing our shared goal of achieving ‘a working river and a river that works’ for the Upper Mississippi River System,” said leaders from the three groups in the letter. “This river network is Congressionally-recognized as both a significant national ecosystem and as a crucial transportation corridor, our nation’s third coast,” the letter emphasized. During the final week of September, a delegation of representatives from all three organizations converged on Capitol Hill to challenge the Senate toward action. UMRBA is an interstate organization created by the Governors of the five Upper Basin states. Their function is to help state agencies coordinate river programs and work in collaboration with federal agencies. Through UMRBA, the States’ natural resource, transportation, agriculture, and economic development agencies have a voice on UMRS issues. Join the effort to authorize these long overdue Upper Miss projects! Call your Senator through the Capitol switchboard: 202-224-3121 WRDA Support Gains Traction with Bi-Partisan Senate Action While the delegation of MARC 2000, Audubon, and Basin States dropped in on the Senate, they advocated each office to sign onto a bi-partisan letter urging Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) and Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) to expedite WRDA’s appearance on the Senate calendar. An amazing 44 U.S. Senators added their names to the letter. “The River Alert” sends special thanks to Senate staffers Todd Atkinson (Sen. Barack Obama) and Let Mon Lee (Sen. Kit Bond) for their hard work in garnering signatures. Meanwhile, the World Wildlife Fund called their members to urge WRDA’s passage, primarily on the grounds of gaining support for the Florida Everglades restoration program. Audubon plans an action alert to its members, and MARC 2000 is tracking other conservation groups, continuing to reach out to those organizations willing to work toward solutions in a collaborative, productive effort. Also during the DC visits, an industry-wide letter circulated under the National Waterways Alliance banner gained endorsement from over 375 waterway and related groups. Other efforts continue to put emphasis on WRDA’s importance to the nation. (Editor’s final note: There is still time to let your Senator know that passage is WRDA is vital. If you are reading this on line, you can find the contact for your state on the Internet by using “Senate” as the keyword on Google.) MARC 2000 Annual Meeting Provided Momentum for Audubon Agreement
 The historic collaboration between MARC 2000 and Audubon [Society] was a result of years of dialogue between the organizations, cresting with an invitation to Audubon by MARC 2000 to appear at its 14th Annual Meeting, “Building…on Tradition”, on September 12-13 in St. Louis.
The timeframe, a departure from the traditional November appointment, provided an opportunity to discuss strategy and challenges to WRDA’s passage during the final quarter of 2005. Presentations and photos from the MARC 2000 Annual Meeting, including Audubon’s, are available on the “new” (and still under construction) MARC 2000 website — see “What’s Hot” at www.marc2000.org For Those Inclined To Pray
 We have modified the steps for joining our Prayer Circle. If you visit the Prayer Circle link on at www.littleriverbooks.com, you will find that those who sign up are completely anonymous. We do not ask for first names nor states of residence. Joining is as simple as providing an email address to which we can send future prayer requests. Each prayer request list includes a link for including requests.
By joining our Prayer Circle, you can tap into the prayerful support of circle members wherever they are. Membership and prayer requests are open to everyone. Advertising
Your classified ad can go in this space for $10 for one week, $20 for two weeks, $25 for three weeks, and $30 for four weeks. For details click here. On The Waterfront
Boaters Capable Of Fouling Up Without Towboats In Picture No reason to gloat. On the other hand, recreational boaters are perfectly capable of getting into trouble without towboats and tows around. On October 14 a few people at Martins Ferry Yacht Club over on the Ohio decided to take two boats out on the river. Later, apparently in response to a call, the Martin’s Ferry Police arrive and found that the boats had collided, injuring six, one seriously. A patrolman on the scene said one boat was southbound and the other ran over it. The boat that was run over carried 8-10 passengers, the other two. Names were not released. Delta Queen Boats Leave New Orleans Rebecca Mowbray of the New Orleans “Times Picayune” reports that the Delta Queen Steamboat Company’s Delta Queen, American Queen and Mississippi Queen will resume passenger service in April and May. But they will not be leaving from New Orleans. The 170-passenger DQ will begin operating out of Baton Rouge on April 21 and will be joined on May 31 by the 436-passenger American Queen. The 420-passenger Mississippi Queen will begin operating out of Memphis on April 23, as it normally does in the spring, Mowbray wrote. For information, call (800) 543-1949 or visit www.deltaqueen.com By the way, Millie Ball, travel editor out of New Orleans, wrote about the Delta Queen Steamboat Company’s plans and also indicated that RiverBarge still calls New Orleans home. “RiverBarge, which New Orleans towboat operator Eddie Conrad started in 1999 to provide a casual, relaxed river experience, still will be based in New Orleans,” Ball wrote. She got her news from RiverBarge Director of Sales Patricia Doyle Noble. It just so happens that the company’s 198-passenger River Explorer is presently on Upper Mississippi River foliage tours and will head home to New Orleans in early December. She will resume sailing December 19-27 on a Christmas cruise from New Orleans, December 30-January 2 on a New Year’s cruise. The River Explorer, writes Ball, “consists of two linked 295-foot barges — one with overnight guest rooms and the other with a cafeteria-style restaurant and other public rooms. For information, call (888) 462-2743 or visit www.riverbarge.com (Editor’s note: Also see comments in Our Readers Write, below.) Howard Steamboat Museum Plans October 23 Program The Howard Steamboat Museum will have a program on Sunday, October 23rd at 2 p.m., to dedicate the Capt. C. W. Stoll Memorial Bookcase and Exhibit. The program will include a talk by Keith Norrington, curator, and river music provided by Capt. Bill Ray and The Big Muddy String Band. Refreshments will be served at a reception following the program. The museum is located at 1101 East Market St., Jeffersonville, Ind. The phone number is 812-283-3728. The museum web site is: http://www.steamboatmuseum.org. Gulf Coast Region Recovery Hampered By Lack of Workers And Homes WorkBoat Online Editor David Krapf tells us that there is plenty of work on the Gulf Coast but the problem is where to find workers and how to house them. He says marine-and-port-related businesses from Alabama to Louisiana are ready to go to work moving cargo and building and repairing boats but are short of manpower. Probably not to be unexpected, many workers have gravitated to higher paying debris removal work. Housing and lack of it are problems for both shipyards and truckers. TECO Terminal Back In Operation TECO Energy, Inc., reported on October 13 that TECO Transport’s Bulk Terminal business at Davant, La., south of New Orleans, returned to operations on the 12th. The firm is operating river-barge unloading systems and one of its two systems for storing materials and loading oceangoing vessels at about 70 percent of normal rates. The second storage yard and handling system is under repair and will be returned to service in the near future. advertisement
The River School - Deck and engineer licenses, radar observer, tankerman, fire and water safety courses, video programs. Travel classes in convenient locations. (800) 238-7113 www.riverschool.com From Our Readers
Where’s The Cooperative Spirit?  I really enjoy your newsletter. In my younger days I worked a couple of boats. After suffering an accident (not river related) I was unable to return to that life. Life goes on, however, I got caught up in the processes of making a home and career elsewhere. I lost all touch with the river industry. What ever happened to the Mv. Cooperative Spirit (she pushed for Agri-Trans)? She was a great boat to work and quite a looker in her time. I haven’t been able to locate any pics. I worked some smaller vessels for Security Barge Lines and SCNO, but I remember the Spirit the most. Any help and or info on any of the above would be greatly appreciated. Thanks and keep up the great work, I also think most of your editorials are right-on.
JWS B&B Update On The Cooperative Spirit This triple screw boat was built in 1975 by St. Louis Ship, St. Louis. She measured 200 by 54 feet and was powered with GM 20-645E7B diesels, giving her 10,500 hp. She had Falk reduction gears 4.229:1, and Kort nozzles. Agri-Trans sold her in 1992 to American River Transportation Co., St. Louis. Source: 2005 “Inland River Record.” We have only one picture of her in our Photo Center: The picture (#52-21) was taken during her maiden trip, southbound in the Chain of Rocks Canal, on the Upper Mississippi River, January 11, 1976. Copyright Capt. Jeffrey L. Yates . I’m sure you could buy a copy from him. And this reminds me, would those who have pictures of the Cooperative Spirit share them with us. We just need a few. We have lots of other “Cooperative” boats. – Jack Need Information on the Str. George Washington and Conant Tuttle Reader Gerald K. Tuttle, Jr., is doing research to find out about his great great great grandfather, who was said to be a ship contractor and first mate. He reportedly worked on the river for 18 years and at one time, it is believed, he served on the Str. George Washington. We ask anyone who has information that would be of help to let us know here at B&B and we can pass it along. If there are specific books that might contain this kind of material, the names would also be helpful. — Jack What Happened To The Natchez? (response) Just saw the question in Bitts & Bytes about the Str. Natchez. She was taken upriver to Bayou Goula Island (where she has sought refuge in previous hurricanes) and remained in the Baton Rouge area until last Friday, when she returned to New Orleans. Calliopist Debbie Fagnano serenaded the waterfront for a full seven miles as the boat processed back to her Toulouse Street Wharf, concluding the concert with Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy”. For the moment, the Natchez is a dockside restaurant, offering meals from 11-9 each day. It has also been announced on the boat’s web site (www.steamboatnatchez.com) that the boat will soon come up the Mississippi and Ohio rivers on a tramping trip as far as Cincinnati, operating cruises there, at Louisville and at other river cities, before returning to New Orleans in late November. Other updates are posted on the message board of www.Steamboats.Org by former crew member Judy Patsch, who is in frequent contact with the captains and crew. Keith Norrington New Albany, Ind. Judy Patsch Comes Through (response about Natchez) The Natchez went up to Bayou Goula Chute to ride out the storm. She then went up to Baton Rouge/Port Allen and hosted a few events. She returned to the Toulouse St. wharf in New Orleans last Thursday, Oct. 6. She is currently serving meals dockside, and plans are in the works to tramp her from Cincinnati back to New Orleans. Judy Patsch Re: Str. Natchez, last issue B&B Go to http://www.steamboatnatchez.com/ See: Attention NOSC employees Then: Updated Employee Information from Gordon Stevens Mike Herschler Another Query Me, too, I was wondering about how the Queens and their NO office fared from “Kat” storm. Also do you have any word about the RiverBarge Explorer? I hope that outfit was inland somewhere. Glenn Hensley Kirkwood, Mo. USA (Editor’s note: The Delta Queen Steamboat Company web site tells us that all cruises of the American Queen after September 16 were cancelled. November cruises for the Delta Queen and Mississippi Queen will originate from a site other than New Orleans. The company has agreed with relief agencies to make the DQ and MQ available December through February. Some other questions already have been answered in our On The Waterfront section.) Boat Photo Center
 Ten more pictures for the center this week (we have lots right now). They include: the A. D. Heasley from Capt. Butch Bartholomew; Cooperative Vanguard and Dell Butcher from Ed Rahe; Gene Herde from Jim Currens; Erna C. Honeycutt and two more of the W. A. Kernan from Jim Mihalek; and three of the Victor Millet from Hape Kraus in , Oberhausen, Germany.
Click here for the Boat Photo Center. Book Beat
“The Inland River Record” The 2006 “Inland River Record” is due to be released about mid-November. Therefore, we have suspended sales of the 2005 edition unless the buyer insists on having it. We are making up a list of those desiring to purchase the 2006 edition as soon as it is available. You can give us your name, email address and phone number via email at any time and we will contact you when we can start delivering and to consummate the sale. The price, we’re told by the publisher, will remain the same, $37.50 plus S&H from the WJ. We market it for $32.50 plus S&H. “Views on The Mississippi” (The Photographs of Henry Peter Bosse) - by Mark Neuzil  272 pages. 95 cyanotype photographs, 36 illustrations. Soft cover. Table top book. Said to be the first comprehensive collective of photographs by the foremost 19th-Century photographer of the Mississippi River. Henry Peter Bosse, a mapmaker and photographer for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, lived from 1844-1903. He took more than 300 photographs of the Upper Mississippi River from 1883-1893, a time of precedented environmental and social change. View on the Mississippi brings together for the first time nearly 100 of Bosse's most stunning images. These photographs - tracing the river from Minneapolis to St. Louis - capture the Mississippi as it was being transformed from an untamed natural wonder to a modern commercial highway. The cyanotype process produced large-format photographs in crisp vivid blue tones. It is a large (13-1/4" x 9-3/8") volume. Usually same-day shipping! (We no longer offer the hard cover edition because our source has raised the price to $89.) Our Price: $29.95
The Gift Shop
Models And Caps Discontinued Because Cherokee Barge and Boat has announced interest in advertising its multitude of river-related products in our newsletter and perhaps on our web site, we have discontinued handling the scant choice of barge models and the American Steamboater caps that we previously carried in our gift shop. These products will be available in a larger variety from Cherokee, so it will actually be more convenient for those desiring to buy models. By ordering directly from Cherokee, customers can get the precise selection with boat and company name, type of barges, etc. that they want. This is a service we could not offer. 
Steamboat Clock & Barometer - The hinged porthole-style case is solid brass with a lacquered antique finish. It has quartz movement for convenience and accuracy and runs on one AA battery. The matching Steamboat Barometer has visible aneroid barometer movement, and the antique brass case is hinged so that the movement is accessible from the front.280522 Steamboat Quartz Clock $136.49 280722 Steamboat Barometer $146.99 Tow Talkin'
October 17, 2005 By Kathy Flippo  Got us a stranger in these parts. The Mv. Sherman A. Waxler put in an appearance as she went north with four chem Barges. Of course she belongs to the Waxler Towing Co., Inc. of Memphis, Tennessee. She was built back in 1960 by Dravo at Neville Island, Pennsylvania and is 148 feet by 34 feet, with a pair of GMs giving 3,200 horsepower.
Originally she was the Albert F. Holden, owned and operated by Island Creek Fuel and Transportation Company of Huntington, West Virginia. They sold her in 1963 to ACBL, who renamed her Dennis Newman. Then ACBL sold her to Waxlers in October of 1994 and they renamed her again to her present name. Yes, I know, all three names are men’s names, but it doesn’t make any difference. She is still a she! The river is on the rise here thanks to all the rain in Minnesota. We’re almost up to 10 feet on the railroad gauge. That gauge runs about… to continue reading click here. See you on the Web, Jack Little River Books jacksimpson@littleriverbooks.com Don't forget to visit our website! |
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