RIVERBOATS GEAR UP FOR GREAT RACE; DELTA, MISSISSIPPI QUEENS WILL DOCK IN CAPE TODAY

PADUCAH, Ky. -- The Great Steamboat Race might not be the topic of conversation that replaces politics and the weather like it did in the days of Mark Twain, but that doesn't mean it isn't as hotly contested.

Twain once wrote that "in the flush times of steamboating, a race between two notoriously fleet steamers was an event of vast importance. The date was set for it several weeks in advance, and from that time forward the whole Mississippi valley was in a state of consuming excitement. Politics and the weather was dropped, and people talked only of the coming race."

The first steamboat race, in 1870, was a personal duel between the captain of the Robert E. Lee, John W. Cannon, and the captain of the Natchez, Tom P. Leathers. In that race Cannon removed the windows, shutters, doors, anchors and just about everything that was not essential to piloting and powering the Robert E. Lee and won by more than six hours.

This year the captains of the competing steamboats, the Delta Queen and the Mississippi Queen, aren't going to the same lengths that Cannon did -- but they are prepared to do what it takes to win.

After stopping at the Broadway and Water Street floodgate in Cape Girardeau today at from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., the boats will continue on upriver to the Coast Guard Station six miles out from St. Louis. There, on Thursday they will stop, get up a good head of steam, then sprint off at the sound of the gun at a blistering top speed of 12 mph in the Great Steamboat Race.

Mississippi Queen Capt. Adrian Hargrove was beaming with confidence Tuesday in Paducah as he discussed his strategy for holding on to the coveted Golden Antlers, the prize for winning, which he claimed in last year's race.

"We do have ways of winning," Hargrove said, scoffing at the lighter Delta Queen's quickness advantage. "We're 50 years younger. We're vivacious and rearin' to go. They're old and slow to go."

Delta Queen Capt. Gabe Chengery said his crew was going to "put the pedal to the metal."

"We'll get a good, level steam going," Chengery said. "We're smaller and should get a good jump, then try and take a lead on them."

Both boats are equipped with the same 2,000-horsepower steam engines, but the Mississippi Queen has a larger paddlewheel that might offset the Delta Queen's quickness over the six-mile race.

Six miles, the last leg of the 1,135-river-mile journey from New Orleans to St. Louis, is all the two boats will actually race. The rest of the trip is an excursion for the more than 500 passengers the two boats accommodate.

"The passengers just love it," Hargrove said of the final race. "They really get into it, so much so that they might be throwing banana peels and what not at the other boat to try and trip it up."

The end of the race, which will be where the Mississippi Queen and the Delta Queen meet up with their sister ship, the new American Queen, will coincide with the St. Louis Fair and Independence Day celebration.

"We may not win," Hargrove said. "But they'll know they were in a race."