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Look Back: Admiral cruises end
Date: 5/18/2010 Album ID: 1001892
Photos by Post-Dispatch photographers
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A Coast Guard inspector’s hammer had punched a hole through the hull of the S.S. Admiral, and there would be no more cruises for the beloved St. Louis riverboat.
The Albatross, an old railroad-car ferry that was built in 1907, rests on the St. Louis Levee in 1937 awaiting its transformation into the sleek, shining S.S. Admiral. The Albatross had ferried railroad cars across the Mississippi River at Vicksburg, Miss. Streckfus Steamers Inc. of St. Louis bought it to make into a day excursion boat in St. Louis. (Post-Dispatch)
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The Admiral turns into the current of the Mississippi after casting off from the Levee a few days after its first cruise on June 12, 1940. In the background is the St. Louis Municipal Bridge, renamed the MacArthur Bridge shortly after the United States entered World War II. There is no Poplar Street Bridge, of course. The Admiral moored on the Levee with its bow facing upriver, and would make its wide launching turn just below the Eads Bridge, from which this photo was taken. (Post-Dispatch)
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The Admiral runs beneath the Municipal Bridge during its first month of operation. The enclosed second and third decks were air-conditioned, a major plus for the steamboat's summertime business. But plenty of people enjoyed the breeze and view on the fourth and top decks. (Post-Dispatch)
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Lights from the Municipal Bridge twinkle above during one of the Admiral's first evening cruises, which catered to couples and groups of young people. There was dinner, dancing and lots of room to hang out and watch the city go by -- or watch other people. (Post-Dispatch)
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Dancing in the main ballroom in 1940 on the second deck to the music of a 13-piece big band and three female singers. Barely two years later, the young men in scenes such as this would be in military uniform. (Post-Dispatch)
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Patricia Rone, of 5644 Terry Avenue, talks with her sailor date while leaning against a rear anchor on the main deck in June 1944. The caption that ran with the picture doesn't describe what point she is making. (Post-Dispatch)
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A young woman fires away with a machine-gun arcade game on the main deck in June 1944. The caption doesn't identify her or her sailor date. The open-air main deck was filled with rows of noisy games. Patrons also could watch the river or the motions of the steam-driven pistons and the long drive booms that turned the boat's two sidewheels. The drive booms were named Popeye and Wimpy. (Post-Dispatch)
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Catholic nuns who attend St. Louis University take a break from classes with a cruise on July 6, 1963. The legs of the Arch rise in the background. (Floyd Bowser/Post-Dispatch)
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Joseph Wray plays the steam calliope on the top deck of the Admiral as part of a riverfront concert on Aug. 16, 1964. At right, Ray Eggleston takes instructions from the orchestra conductor via a two-way radio. (James A. Rackwitz/Post-Dispatch)
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Workers temporarily remove crosspieces from one of the Admiral's sidewheels in October 1970 to prevent driftwood and other debris from getting caught in the wheel during winter. The sidewheels were powered by the boat's steam engines, but the wheels were hidden by the steel outer skin of the boat. (Lester Linck/Post-Dispatch)
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Bebe Rinke and Morris Moss dance to the sound of the St. Louis Saints jazz ensemble on the Admiral on Sept. 14, 1974. The musicians are, from left, Glennon Meyer, Dennis Matteuzzi and Norman Menne. (Fredric F. Sweets/Post-Dispatch)
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Kids try their luck with an auto-racing arcade game on the main deck on July 13, 1975. (Larry Williams/Post-Dispatch)
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All ages hit the ballroom dance floor during the daytime excursions, this one on July 13, 1975. Note the knee socks -- a real tipoff that this scene is from the '70s. (Larry Williams)
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Rick Stiles of south St. Louis, a leader of the forlorn effort to save the Admiral with grassroots fundraising, displays the pledge cards that his group was handing out in March 1980. Stiles got busy after reading that the Streckfus Steamers Inc., which had cancelled the 1979 cruise season to make repairs to the Admiral, announced that the deterioration of the boat's hull was more serious than originally thought -- and that there would be no 1980 season either, and probably never another one, without $500,000 in repairs. (Lynn T. Spence/Post-Dispatch)
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The Admiral, back on the St. Louis Levee in March 1986, being renovated and refitted as a floating family entertainment center. Streckfus sold the Admiral in May 1981 for $600,000 to John E. Connelly, a Pittsburgh businessman who planned to restore it for business in his city. In September 1981, a group of 14 St. Louis businessmen announced it would buy the boat back for about $1.5 million and find a use for it on the Levee. (Connelly, meanwhile, had removed the diesel engines that Streckfus installed in the boat in 1975, replacing its steam engines and sidewheels). The local group invested and raised about $37 million to remake it an entertainment center, to be operated by Six Flags Corp. It reopened with a splash in March 1987, but never drew big crowds. Connelly returned that fall to manage it at the request of Mayor Vincent C. Schoemehl Jr., who long promoted the idea of saving the boat. Bills piled up, and the boat was closed on Nov. 3, 1987, when Union Electric Co. (now AmerenUE) shut off the power for non-payment. Connelly reopened it May 6, 1988, as a high-tech music and dining boat, but it flopped again. Connelly closed it Nov. 11, 1988, then bought it again and reopened it as the President Casino on the Admiral in 1994. (Lynn T. Spence/Post-Dispatch)
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John Edward Connelly, the man who bought and sold and bought the Admiral. (Post-Dispatch)
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The Admiral held against the Levee by the towboat Anne Holly on April 5, 1998, one day after barges that broke free from the Holly snapped all but one of the casino's mooring lines. The Holly was heading upstream with 14 barges on the evening of April 4, 1998, when its tow collided with one of the Eads Bridge piers. Three of the barges drifted into the Admiral, snapping the mooring lines and letting the boat drift bow first into the Mississippi River, which was running slightly over flood stage. The Holly's pilot, John O. Johnson, motored over to hold the casino as it is shown. St. Louis firefighters and police officers and Coast Guard personnel safely evacuated the 2,300 gamblers and employees, but fire officials said the area narrowly escaped disaster. The accident led to moving the Admiral north of the Martin Luther King Bridge, where it is moored today. (J.B. Forbes/Post-Dispatch)
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What near disaster? Gamblers back on the machines on May 1, 1998, after the Admiral was reopened. Reporters who interviewed people after the rescue the month before noted how many of the gamblers insisted they had been way ahead when the barges struck. Lawsuits by gamblers and others weren't settled until 2008. (Dilip Vishwanat/Post-Dispatch)
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The President Casino on the Admiral moored next to Lumier Place, the new casino of the old boat's current owner, Pinnacle Entertainment. Pinnacle says the floating casino will close July 1, but hasn't said what will happen to the ferry-turned-excursion boat-turned-entertainment center-turned casino. (J.B. Forbes/Post-Dispatch)
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