Belle of Louisville paddles on, with nostalgia at the helm

Twenty-two years ago, Matt Kemp struck up a conversation with crew members of the Belle of Louisville. To him, the sheet-cake-shaped steamboat, built in 1914, evoked nostalgia.

“What does it take to get a job here?” Mr. Kemp asked. He got hired as a deck mate.

The love affair with steamboats hasn’t waned for either Mr. Kemp or the rest of the crew. The vessels are imbued with the romance of a simpler era. Time passed as slowly then as it does now for the Belle of Louisville, slipping past the grand homes lining the Ohio River. “We’re in this little magical bubble that is held in time,” Mr. Kemp says.

In the lower-deck boiler room – which is temperate only in comparison with the surface of Venus – chief engineer Daniel Lewis says the engines are the same as they were in Mark Twain’s time. Best part of the job? Meeting passengers from around the world. It’s hard to hear him talk, because the rotating paddle wheel churns the water like a frenzy of piranhas.

The roof-deck pilot house is more tranquil. Acting captain Eddie Mattingly describes his job as “hours and hours of boredom interrupted by moments of sheer terror.” He says he scans the river for small personal watercraft, including Jet Skis – “gnats” who can swarm dangerously close to the vessel. Mr. Mattingly has been doing this for 45 years, so maritime safety is, quite literally, in his wheelhouse. “As long as you’re able to take care of her, she’ll keep running,” Mr. Lewis says of the boat.

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