Independence (CVA 62) - Naval Cruise Book

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lightly over one hundred years ago, before the War, when the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers were the bloodstream of our nation, when settlers depended on the rivers for their lives-food and drink, business and pleasure, liveli- hood and entertainment-a phenomenon arose different from any past wonder, similar to but separate from the keelboats, flatboats, and other steamboats surrounding it, greater in its aspect: the Showboat. Like royal barges of the Middle Eastern queens, and more festive than -the gayest gondola of Venice, brightly decorated boats flying multi-colored flags from every mast and funnel paddle-wheeled up and down the rivers, like medieval actors in Italy, France, and Spain, troupes moved from town to town, bringing to the scattered hearts of a generation of experimenters in humanity colored lights and stirring music, silk top hats and oversize bow ties in minstrel shows and circuses, comedies, and melodramas to show the people what was happening across the land. This was the Showboat: a spectacle of action on an awe-inspiring marvel of marine accomplishment. , . Not all the spectacle of the Showboat was on the boat itself, hours be- fore it appeared around the bend Calways around a bendl, young men in gray starched suits would promenade with girls in crinoline and parasols. Boys with hoptoads in their pockets chased each other on the levees, and prim pigtailed girls sat with their dolls and mothers as, from the corners of their eyes, they watched. Old women knitted in the shade,'a'nd older men with pipe stumps in their teeth stood on the pier and squinted down the river, waiting for the whis- tie: the day the Showboat came to port, that day was a holiday. But the Showboat worked. She had other missions besides, display. She carried cargo and brought packages and mail -and passengers. Her actors worked hard to perfect their parts, to set and polish their scenes, to learn new roles as the demands upon them changed. Her crew watched continuously to avoid sunken logs and to note uncharted changes in the river's course, or stoked wood to keep her boilers turning the great splashing paddle-wheels. Then the War came. The rehearsals were over. The boats were fitted out with guns, and the crews became military men. The passengers, the mail, the packages, were replaced by other cargoes for logistic support - munitions, foodstuffs, bandages-and another side of the Showboat was shown to the na- tion: protector, defender, devastator. Shortly after the War, after serving admi- rably both to delight and to protect, the Showboat vanished from the American scene, a legend before our time. t NAVY DEPAR i MINT UBRARY BLDG 44 wAsHiNcToiv NAVY YARD wAsHiNoToN,o.c. 203740571 f '