New Orleans is known by several names: The Big Easy, NOLA and the Crescent City. This last title is linked to its location as the city sits along a very sharp bend in the Mississippi River giving it a crescent like shape.
If you’ve watched the musical “Showboat” then you’ll have a picture in your mind of what life was like aboard and around a Mississippi steam boat in the late nineteenth century. As someone who has seen this classic movie, coming to New Orleans meant being able to go aboard a steam boat and cruise down the Mississippi. I did this yesterday.
I boarded the steamboat at eleven and settled into a space on the top deck, camera at the ready, and zippy top zipped all the way to the top because the weather was grey and rather breezy and thus, not overly inviting. Jazz music piped through the speakers and the messages that interrupted this informed the passengers of where you could get refreshments of the mild and not so mild variety. We were also given some history about the boat itself as we waited to depart.
This particular vessel is one of only two “true steam powered” wheelers on the Mississippi at the moment. Her engine, in particular, dates from the 1920s even though the ship itself is newer. Her copper and steel steam whistle is considered an antique and her bell was made from two hundred and fifty silver dollars which were smelted to create the clearest note. It is the genuine article. This was apparent as soon as we began to pull away from the dock when the captain moved to a corner near to where i was sitting, climbed aboard small platform and began to issue his instructions using an old fashioned, hand held megaphone. The boat executed a graceful departure from its moorings and exclaimed to the world we were on our way with a peal from its whistle and a giant puff of steam.
Now, in my head we were going to “cruise” down the Mississippi and I was going to see beautiful landscapes and romantic settings before me. But, had I thought it through in advance, I would have realised that this was not likely. Why so? Because I knew that New Orleans has one of the busiest ports in the whole of the US so it was always more probable that its whole coastline along the river was going to be industrial. I looked it up before writing this and the port is the first in the US based on volume of cargo handled. So, there were no “pretty” views other than in the first few minutes of sailing where you can look into Jackson Square and have the view of the Cathedral before you.
The moment we pulled away from the French Quarter vicinity the scenery changed to one of an industrial, very busy, harbour/port. It was very interesting though. Along the banks are several buildings one of which is the second largest sugar refinery in the world and, even before the information was piped out at us, you could actually smell the brown sugar on the wind. There were hundreds of barges being unloaded of their sweet cargo before this was taken to the refinery. There were also reminders of the damage caused by Katrina with wooden pier-type structures showing how they’d been attacked by the storm and how they’ve since been left as they ended up. Also, it is striking as you travel along that there are no bridges spanning the river – well, there is one main one in the centre of New Orleans and it’s an impressive one. This is due to the fact that the water here moves incredibly fast (something like six hundred thousand cubic feet per second) and the bed of the river and the ground beneath it is not the strongest thus, building a bridge presents great difficulties. Instead they run ferries at different spots to cross the river.
While on board, and dying a death from the cold as the wind was nasty and I wasn’t wearing anywhere near enough clothing, I met the most amazing family. Two brothers from New York who were funny and engaging and who invited me to join them and their mum in the dining room for tea and bread pudding. What can I say? They were wonderful and their mum, it turns out, is a kindred spirit of mine. While we had our sit down, and I thawed out, I looked around the dining room. It is a throwback to a time gone by. Lamps and carpets and wallpaper. You could almost imagine it being just like this at the time that Showboat was set.
The views from the boat were not the picturesque ones my romanticised projection expected but it was still an interesting few hours. It is the boat itself that captures the imagination with time almost seemingly having halted aboard it. And, when you’re on board and steaming down the powerful Mississippi, if you closed your eyes until only a sliver remained open, you could almost imagine hearing a deep, bass voice singing out the lines,
O’ man river,
Dat ol’ man river,
He mus’ know sumpin’
But don’t say nuthin’
He jes’ keeps rollin’
He keeps on rollin’ along.
Long ol’ river forever keeps rollin’ on…
E x
Losing Sight of the Margin 