Big Wheel Keep On Turning

Bart Hoebel and his Delaware River Steamboat Floating Classroom are on an environmental mission.

By: Ilene Dube

Staff photos by Frank Wojciechowski

Professor Bart Hoebel and SPLASH, the steamboat he refurbished with a volunteer crew.

   Princeton University Psychology Professor Bart Hoebel has always found interesting things to do in his spare time. During the Vietnam War era, he founded the Princeton Peace Center (which later morphed into the Coalition for Peace Action). In 1976, he bought a horse farm in Rocky Hill and started raising Christmas trees. Planting, mowing and shearing were good exercise and more enjoyable than golf or tennis.
   At around the same time, he got into hot-air ballooning. As the faculty advisor of the university’s brand-new balloon club, he felt compelled to have one of his own. "These were fun ways to have adventures close to home and involve the whole family," he says.
   In 1990, he refurbished an old steam calliope that has become a staple of such Princeton events as the Fete, Memorial Day Parade and P-rade. Dr. Hoebel’s wife, Cindy, a pianist, plays tunes on the two octaves of steam whistles built into an old fire truck.

The team discusses how to get the boat off the ramp and into the river. Success was achieved May 1, and the boat is now docked in New Hope, Pa.

   The latest adventure for Dr. Hoebel is the Delaware River Steamboat Classroom. Docked in New Hope, Pa., it is designed to run with educators and other environmental organizations to teach water ecology and American history.
   Seven percent of the United States, or 17 million people, rely on the Delaware as a source of drinking water, including half of New York City, according to Dr. Hoebel. The D&R Canal comes out of the Delaware River, bringing drinking water to central New Jersey, and although it has been cleaned up in recent years, toxic chemicals still get in from highways, Superfund sites, farms and lawns. "It is a good idea to put it through a charcoal filter," says Dr. Hoebel.
   A gala will be held at Gerenser’s Dock in New Hope May 8 for the official launch with a champagne toast, Dixieland band, dinner and dancing. Costumed characters will bring the spirit of George Washington, Abe Lincoln and John Fitch, inventor of the first steamboat, to life.
   It all began with a conversation Dr. Hoebel had with his friend Jim Amon, executive director of the Delaware & Raritan Canal Commission. Dr. Hoebel was looking for a five-person steam launch like the African Queen, but Mr. Amon suggested a steamboat big enough for "a bus load of kids." He conceived of it as a floating classroom for science and history.
   Dr. Hoebel found a replica of an 1880 steamboat used to carry passengers and light freight in shallow rivers and canals. Such a shallow riverboat would carry passengers, hay and lumber from Lambertville to Easton, Pa., in the mid- to late-1800s, says Dr. Hoebel.
   Built in 1970, it was used until 1995 as a nonprofit educational boat on the Maumee River near Toledo, Ohio. Then it sat on the grass for three years, where squirrels and birds adopted it as their home and provided free antiquing in the form of rust. When Dr. Hoebel found it, it was sadly dilapidated.
   In order to raise money to buy the boat, Mr. and Mrs. Hoebel sold the development rights to their Rocky Hill farm with the help of the D&R Greenway, preserving it as farmland forever.
   "It started as a hobby and turned into a nonprofit organization with many people involved," says Dr. Hoebel of the Steamboat Floating Classroom. "People from as far away as Canada, Florida and Tennessee have contributed."
   Hundreds of area donors include James Firestone, the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Princeton and The Bunbury Co.
   The boat spent a few years on the Rocky Hill farm until 2001 when it was transported to C&F Metal Fabricators in Hillsborough where Fred Nawrotski, his family and a crew of welders replaced the boat ribs and hull. A team of volunteers applied 100 gallons of paint to the steamboat in blue and white with red trim. The paddlewheel is painted a bright red.
   New ribs, a new bulkhead, a new hull, new electric wiring for the boiler, lights and bilge pumps were all part of the restoration. Steam fittings were installed, sandblasted, painted and polished. Ted Griffith, a master machinist in the physics department at Princeton University who helped build telescopes for Antarctica, strung stainless-steel cables for safety railings. The U.S. Coast Guard inspected the work at every stage.
   And Dr. Hoebel has received his wish. His whole family can participate in this adventure. In addition to painting, several weekends ago they all got together and scrubbed life vests.
   Although some thought had been given to burning bio-diesel from recycled French-fry oil, the cost would be too high; home heating oil will be used instead. In the 1800s, steamboats like this burned wood or coal.
   David Smith, professor emeritus from The College of New Jersey, where he started the environmental education program more than 40 years ago, will direct the educational program, training teachers. The plan is for teachers to offer a weeklong lesson on the boat. "Kids can see a steam engine and do water sampling," says Dr. Hoebel. It is intended for second grade and up; there are even programs for senior citizens in the works. Several area school systems and homeschooling associations have expressed interest.
   Princeton resident Jim Firestone, a real estate broker and river poet, will teach river literature and poetry. Readings and re-enactments of Mark Twain’s description of riverboat life can be offered. River inventions, the science of transportation, engineering the water cycle and how laws are changed and enforced are among the discussion topics.
   History lessons will begin with the Revolutionary War. Gen. George Washington first crossed from New Jersey to Pennsylvania at Lambertville-New Hope. Lessons on the Civil War-era will focus on the role of canals in winning the war, and bringing coal from Pennsylvania and iron from New Jersey.
   Trips from New Hope will steam up river about a mile, where passengers can see the shad fishery and wildlife and anchor for water testing. Students will learn how to care for the water supply. Shad used to die in the river, but thanks to efforts to clean the water, shad are back.
   The boat’s first captain will be Bob Gerenser, who runs a tour-boat company from his Exotic Ice Cream Store in New Hope. The boat has been named SPLASH, for Student Participation in Learning Aquatic Science and History. Steamboat Floating Classroom is working in cooperation with Delaware River Greenway Partnership, The Delaware & Raritan Canal Commission, Delaware Riverkeeper Network and New Jersey Canal Society, among many other groups.
   "Environment-based learning can be applied to any school subject and will include opportunities to develop writing and math skills," says Dr. Hoebel in his newsletter. "The steamboat is a reminder of life along the river 100 years ago, as it teaches river stewardship… Steam engines and paddlewheels have a rhythm, power and excitement that is bound to amaze and capture the attention of anyone."
   During SPLASH’s last day in the C&F Metal Fabricators yard, Dr. Hoebel stood on the boat’s upper deck. A freight train passing through whistled, sounding not too dissimilar from the boat whistle that is used by the captain to signal leaving the dock. "With the wind in your hair," he says, "you can almost imagine you’re in the water."
A gala for the official launch of the Steamboat Floating Classroom will be held May 8 at Capt. Bob Gerenser’s Exotic Ice Cream Store in New Hope, Pa. Tickets are sold out. For more information on the steamboat, contact Dr. Hoebel at (609) 258-4463 or [email protected]. For educational information, e-mail [email protected]. For tour information, call (908) 722-7428.