European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - June 26, 1977, Darmstadt, Hesse Steamboat to a land of dreams won t you come along withe to the Mississippi we Litake the boat to the land of dreams steam Down the River. Welcome aboard the Natchez Hawley said both his hands out thrust. It s a Good night for a any night is. This night the lights fro the French Quarter of new Orleans lit a Chilly sky and somewhere a trombone moaned. At the Toulouse Street wharf that Lovely River mistress the Natchez last descendant of a Noble and Gaudy Steamboat family strained at thick mooring lines he great Stern paddle wheel idling in the dark water a tethered filly begging to prance. Capt. Hawley bounded up the ladder tothe Wing Bridge and took up a megaphone. He glanced at the Flag above the Bow noted an onshore Breeze Well go off with the Stem line he shouted to the Pilot House. Aye Stern line the Pilot the midship line go he called to scurrying deck hands 40 feet right Bow line. Ahead slow rudder amidships. All Stop. Back half. Half ahead now. Stem line boys let s go the gleaming White trimmed in lipstick red Slid into the wide current like a jewelled Swan Pas sengers waving band playing pen Nants snapping Stem Beel atop the Jaunty Pim Boose the brass steam whistle Sang oat a ran Coos Farewell. That s capt. Hawley Twain could t have said it More accurately or believed it More Hawley s whole use is on the Mississippi too no one feels More fondly about the lore end Romance of River steam boating than the 41-year-old Captain of Chestem Wheeler Natchez. He s a slight Man about five nine with tanned face and Lively Brown eyes. On the subject of steamboats his speech quicken Stossl ahead full. The Cabins on a Steamboat used to renamed for states which is How the word stateroom came about. The Large twas the Texas so that deck became the Texas deck. The deck below is the Hur Rickiy deck the one below that the Maine gangplank on the Bow recalled stages because minstrels danced on them when a Steamboat nosed into a land ing. Come Down and let me show you the engines then Well go to the pilothouse. Anyone who stands in the throbbing engine room of a Steamboat and watches those huge pistons muscle that great dripping wheel and does t get Goose bumps has no soul. Anyone who stands in the lofty pilothouse of a Steamboat and Are you ready for this lakes the wheel and steers that it Steamboat Captain Clarke Hawley prepares Natchez Crew to cast off. I and does t feel the thrill of a lifetime ambition less. Clarke Hawley the master of this 205-foot Beauty has been a slave of steam boats since he got his first Job on the excursion boat Avalon at age 16 on the Kanawha River in Charleston w.va., his Hometown. The Hawleys had a parlor Organ. Clark could play it. He became the Avalon s Calliope was the last of the tramping steam boats barnstorming from one town to an other on All the Inland Rivers. I was also the Popcorn Popper deck hand watchman mate. Finally in 1960,1 got my master s i when the Avalon s Captain Erneste. Wagner left to command the Delta Queen. In Cincinnati Clarke Hawley took Over As Captain of the Avalon and later of the Avalon s successor Phebelle of Louisville. In 1975 a new York admiralty lawyer Wilbur e. Dow jr., whose family had been in the Steamboat business since 1817, Toolkit in mind to build the Natchez the ninth Steamer to Bear that proud name. He sacrificed nothing to authenticity Down to the last filigree railing and Crystal Chande Lier. I was offered the Job of Captain Clarke Hawley said. Even before she was finished i took one look and said Clarke Hawley knew his steam boating. He knew that in 1870 an earlier Natchez had challenged the Robert e. Lee to a Sto ried race and had had his new Natchez touched water when the most formidable steam boat then afloat arrived in new Orleans the Delta Queen captained by his former skipper aboard the Avalon Ernest ," Hawley said to Wagner let s have a Wagner said to Hawley it will be the upstart against the old it Wai a glorious moment and a Glo rious race and the upstart won. They raced again last year and again the Natchez steamed in first whistle War ing. A gentle cruise six Miles downstream 12miles up six Miles Back May not offer that sort of excitement but to Clarke Hawley and those aboard it offers something As times a Day i unhook myself from the Pace ashore. Step aboard Steamboat and go out on the River and look Back. You say to yourself i m out Here an they re in there. It s a Nice no argument Captain. Stories by Jules press a liking for alligators the government Harvey Klieber said ruefully closed Down the hide Busi Ness for so Long there s not much else Youcan do with alligators except raise them. It s no longer a Good Don t know what we re going to do. Just keep building More Ponds and pens i when Harvey Kliebert and his brother Bob were adventurous boys Down in wades Boro la., there was nothing they liked better than to go fishing and dragging and trapping Mink i nearby Manchac swamp. Occasionally they came across a Bab Alligator took it Home and tossed it in the Pond behind their House. They liked alligators. They still like alligators. It s a Good thing. Now about 30 years later they have10,000 alligators. They have dug three More big Ponds for them one of them a 4 i acre swamp crawl ing with the beasts. They have built big Concrete pens for alligators and Are building More pens be cause they Don t know what to do with Al the alligators they have. They Are up to their hip pockets in Alli gators. Walking around the Kliebert Alligator Haven on the other sme of the Fence that is and jumping nonetheless at every strange noise walking with the Kii Eraerts ustenia to Harvey and us son Mke talking fondly about those menacing creatures watching them pick up a baby Gator and stroke its belly Yon get the impress a f want to get rid of Many alligators after All. Their main business is raising turtles so the alligators Are a sideline anyhow. Turtles Are fascinating enough. Turtles Are laying now. They Start in april and will go about three months. We Olget Between 600,000 and 700.000 eggs and Batch about 90 per cent of them or re working about 10 or 11 hours a Day digging Turtle eggs. They have to treated to remove any disease incubated. There s a lot that goes into producing that Little pet you buy at the dime digging Turtle eggs the Turtle digs a Hole in the ground with her Tail lays the eggs in the Hole an covers it up. You re standing on a Turtle nest. There s another. There s s nothing absolutely nothing on thedry Bonk of the Pood indicated a Turtle bad burled eggs there. Harvey Kliebert took up a pick and wit each thrust in the hard packed dirt unerringly uncovered a nest. He did not break single egg. Why not let them Hatch in the ground lose too Many of the babies. Other turtles eat them do you teach somebody where to dig can t teach an adult. You have to grow up just eggs out of an a Gator s nest now that s another matter. The Kliebert incubate Alligator eggs too. For the same reason cleaning about 12s nests of about so eggs each. It is done by armed robbery. A couple of Guys beat the Mother away with poles and a third Guy runs up and snatches the eggs. Female alligators protecting a nest Are not Over the years Harvey Klieber thas made less by out observations about Alligator. One is you can t Tell the sex of an Alli Gator. They another is we were always told Amiga tors came to where egrets roasted in the swamp. Alligators eat egrets so that mad sense. See All those egrets the Moss Hung Cypress and Pines above the Klieber swamp Are alive with the White Birds. The egrets followed the alligators the opposite. Egrets follow alligators but god knows Why unless they like Harvey s son Mike 17, has made som observations too. An Alligator will eat any Damn thing. Isaw one eat a Beer sunday june 26, 1977 the stars and stripes Page 11
