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| Ohio River - Covington, Kentucky |
Across the Ohio River from Cincinnati, right along the bank
in Covington, KY is a charming little piece of greenery known as George Rogers
Clark Park. I came across this tiny park one evening as Interstate 75 was
completely jammed up due to a vehicle accident so rather than sit in traffic
for hours, I took a stroll along the waterfront to this park. It was a
beautiful autumn evening and the trees in the park were covered with golden
leaves. There was a thick blanket of leaves on the ground that swooshed up as I
walked. I was taking all of this scenery in when in unsuspecting fashion I came
upon a neat looking statue of a woman behind a ships gauge, you know the ones
like in the movie “Titanic” where they crank the lever to tell engineering
below decks to bring the ship to ¼ , ½ or full speed. This statue peaked my
interest so I took a closer look. I was fascinated with the story I discovered
of one CPT Mary Greene. According to the plaque near the statue, Mary Greene
raised her family on the rivers of America as her husband was the owner of the
Greeneline Steamers company. She was one of only a few women to become a
licensed boat master and river pilot. The plaque goes on to state that after
her husband’s death, she ran the 28 steamers of the Greeneline Steamers Company
and she attained legendary status for her exploits.
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Statue of CPT Mary Greene - George Rogers Clark Park
Covington, Kentucky |
It is said that she piloted
a steamboat through a tornado, survived an explosion of nitroglycerine and gave
birth to one of her sons while her boat was locked in an ice gorge. Anyone who
is familiar with the great rivers of the east and Midwest knows that even
without those fantastic tales, merely surviving the hazards to navigation that
abound on those rivers for as long as she did was a miracle. The great rivers
are murky brown and often times you have no idea what lies beneath. Whole trees
called “snags” can be lurking just below the waterline which could spell doom
for an unseasoned boat master. Floods, storms, ice flows, other ships &
crowded commerce, and many other hazards of the river I am ignorant of are what
CPT Mary Greene faced and dealt with on a daily basis as she along with the
other 28 Greene Line Steamers carried our Nations goods, aided commerce and
transportation and in short, helped build this Country. CPT Greene was quite a
character and you can read more about her at the website steamboats.com/museum/marygreene.html
What kind of boat did
the 5 foot nothing, CPT Mary Greene pilot? Well her favorite was the “Delta Queen” which was a paddlewheel
steamboat built in Cincinnati in 1927. The Delta
Queen is 285 feet long, 58 feet wide, displaces 1,650 tons and can carry up
to 176 passengers. Pretty impressive to think that CPT Greene was boat master
and pilot of this beast as she navigated the murky waters of the mighty Ohio
and Mississippi Rivers. Unfortunately at the time of this writing, according to
an article written by Tim Baker of the St. Louis Post Dispatch http://goo.gl/OoEu8O (Sept. 12, 2014), the Delta Queen, even though recognized as a National Historic
Landmark, is tied up on the waterfront in Chattanooga, Tennessee and may not
last another winter. Too bad this ship can’t be brought up river to Cincinnati
so that the statue of CPT Mary Greene could gaze upon her once more. CPT Mary
Greene was an amazing person. I’m glad I stumbled upon her story as I was
walking through George Rogers Clark park on that autumn day in Covington,
Kentucky.
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Greeneline Steamboats that looked similar to these must have crowded the Cincinnati, Ohio and
Covington, Kentucky river front back in the day |
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| Covington Riverfront as seen from George Rogers Clark Park - Covington, Kentucky |
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| George Rogers Clark Park - Covington, Kentucky |
Nice report, but the DQ was built in California, for the Sacramento river trade, brought to the mid-continent after WWII.
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