Article: Belle Of Louisville Article / WINTER Issue 1997 Article contributed by : Paul Urbahns, President, ATHS © 1997, Ancestral Trails Historical Society, Inc. Belle Of Louisville "Open Water Valve Sank Belle" PREPARED FROM VARIOUS LOCAL NEWS REPORTS AND ATHS FILES It may come as a shock to our out of state membership, but the legendary Belle Of Louisville sank on August 24, 1997. Yes it was serious and for about a week no one was sure of the outcome. Various specialists from different parts of the country came to Louisville to help in saving the nation's oldest operating paddle wheel steamboat. As it turns out the sight that greeted the crew on Sunday morning wasn't as bad as it originally seemed. The boat had been on a saturday night "Moonlight Cruise" as usual the night before (August 23rd). The crew tied up the boat and went home same as usual. The following morning they found it sitting on the bottom of the Ohio River, listing to one side because of the ropes which secure the boat to the dock. The Belle had been described by various "river rats" as being built too tough. That's why the 89 year old steamboat has survived duty as a barge pusher during World War II,and various other cargo functions prior to being made into an excursion boat to carry human passengers. Most boats constructed at the time of the Belle were built with wooden hulls, making them subject to puncture by floating tree trunks and other underwater objects. It took a week for divers to check the hull and discover no damage, and for huge pumps to remove the water from the first floor. Once the boat was refloated and towed to dry dock, at Jeffboat, the U S Coast Guard inspectors revealed their findings indicated the Belle Of Louisville was sunk with city drinking water. According to the local media reports, someone opened a valve on a pipe that used to supply the Belle with fresh water while it's docked. With the valve open water sped into the Belle's hull at the rate of 60 gallons a minute. The original water tank was removed, because that pipe is not used anymore. the empty space in the hull , when the water tank once sat, filled with about 28,000 gallons of city water by the time its rear end began sinking early on Sunday morning. River water then began seeping into the boat after the weight of the clean water brought its deck below the level of the Ohio. It will take some time before the Belle is ready to resume its cruise schedule as the engine room and lower deck were filled with mud. The Coast Guard admits it would have been easier to figure out what had happened if they had found a big hole in it. Since human error, not structural problems has been determined as the problem, several modifications to the Belle's original hull structure has been recommended to keep the same problem from happening again.