Float on: Natchez, beloved jazz steamboat of New Orleans, turns 40

NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- Clarke C. "Doc" Hawley was there as the captain barking out orders on a megaphone 40 years ago when the Natchez steamboat launched its maiden voyage on April 13, 1975.

"I thought, hell, this would be the first boat I'd work on with primer and one coat of paint," the 79-year-old river captain says. "Now the Natchez has 40 coats of paint!"

The Natchez, which celebrated its 40th anniversary this spring, is only one of three steam-powered boats left in the Mississippi River valley.

"The Natchez is about the last of the steamboats," says Chris Rieder, a 71-year-old Mississippi captain and pilot instructor with the New Orleans-Baton Rouge Steamship Pilots Association.

Year-round, the elegant steamboat sits moored in front of the bustling French Quarter, a short walk from the beignets and coffee of the Cafe du Monde and the banana trees of Jackson Square.

In this March 15 photo, Captain Donald Houghton, left, and former captain Doc Hawley chat on the Natchez steamboat on the Mississippi River in New Orleans. Hawley was there as the captain when the Natchez steamboat first launched its maiden voyage on April 13, 1975. (Samantha Kaplan ~ Associated Press)

Its decks take throngs of passengers each day for two-hour trips up and down the harbor.

"It's just a one-of-a-kind thing, running a true steamboat in the Port of New Orleans with a busy harbor, showing people the Mississippi River," says Donald Houghton, the current captain on the Natchez.

He stood outside the pilot house on a recent trip, the river swollen from spring flooding.

"The whole reason the city is here is because of the Mississippi River and steamboats," he says.

Below, the boat's watchman is on the loudspeakers, pointing out landmarks.

At this point in the tour, the halfway point, the Natchez is about to turn around, having passed the Domino sugar refinery, one of the nation's largest, and gotten a view of the Chalmette battlefield where Gen. Andrew Jackson defeated the British 200 years ago at the Battle of New Orleans.

A ride on the Natchez and a visit to its 85-year-old U.S. Steel Corporation-built steam engine and multi-ton white oak paddle wheel is part of the pleasure of visiting this old French city of New Orleans, so associated with steamboats and the Deep South.

Although it was built only 40 years ago, the boat was made to resemble the old stern-wheelers and is one of the last true steamboats to have ever been built.

The crew diligently stick to steamboat traditions.

When the boat leaves and arrives at its wooden dock, the captain shouts orders through a megaphone to the pilot. All the crew are impeccably dressed, and the music and fare are high quality. Once underway, the pilot pulls the antique copper and steel whistle that shoots out a jet of steam high into the sky.

In a Sunday, March 15, 2015 photo, Captain Donald Houghton walks on the deck of the Natchez steamboat on the Mississippi River in New Orleans. The Natchez, which celebrates its 40th anniversary on Monday, April 13, is only one of three steam-powered boats left in the Mississippi River valley. (AP Photo/Samantha Kaplan)

Presidents Gerald Ford and both Bushes have been aboard. Plácido Domingo, Dick Van Dyke, Brooke Shields, Bob Hope, Muhammad Ali and Dolly Parton are among the celebrity passengers.

Its 32-note calliope -- a steam-powered piano just like the old boats had -- is certainly one of its main attractions.

"When you hear the calliope, you realize how special New Orleans is," says Deacon John Moore, a New Orleans blues musician and union president who, like countless others, has taken turns playing on the Natchez.

In a March 15 photo, a view of controls on the bridge is seen aboard the Natchez on the Mississippi River in New Orleans. (AP Photo/Samantha Kaplan)

Louis Armstrong and many other great black musicians barred from the steamboats in the early days of jazz came to prominence playing on the steamers after black musicians formed their own unions in the 1920s and broke the color barrier, he says.

On Sundays, Hawley -- who retired in the 1980s from the river -- still plays the calliope.

In a Sunday, March 15, 2015 photo, Chloe Landos, 8, from Phoenix sits with family aboard the Natchez Steamboat on the Mississippi River in New Orleans. The Natchez, which celebrates its 40th anniversary on Monday, April 13, is only one of three steam-powered boats left in the Mississippi River valley. (AP Photo/Samantha Kaplan)

Hawley got his start on the rivers playing the calliope before he went on to become a pilot and captain.

It was 1954 and the Avalon steamboat showed up in Charleston, West Virginia, his hometown, without its calliope playing.

Young Hawley was 16, and his family on his mother's side had been river workers. He played the parlor piano in the living room well, and could play by ear.

So, he quipped to the captain that he could play the calliope and get people down to the boat.

Next thing he knew, the captain offered him a job that summer playing the calliope in the Ohio and Mississippi rivers.

In a Sunday, March 15, 2015 photo, the Calliope emits steam while being played by Doc Hawley on the Natchez on the Mississippi River, Sunday, March 15, 2015. Hawley was there as the captain barking out orders on a megaphone 40 years ago when the Natchez steamboat first launched its maiden voyage on April 13, 1975. The Natchez, which celebrates its 40th anniversary on Monday, April 13, is only one of three steam-powered boats left in the Mississippi River valley. (AP Photo/Samantha Kaplan)

"My mother said, 'If it was good enough for daddy and Uncle Mills, it's good enough for him," Hawley says.

Visit www.steamboatnatchez.com for more information about the Natchez.