Historic Sternwheelers Headed To Nashville In Spring 2026

Visitors to Nashville, Tenn., next spring will have the opportunity to take a ride on a sternwheel paddleboat, including an authentic steamboat.

The Capitol, formerly the Spirit of Peoria, has been repowered as a diesel-electric sternwheeler and has relocated to Perryville, Tenn., awaiting Corps of Engineer dock permitting in Nashville. The Nashville, formerly the 1971 steamboat Julia Belle Swain, has a few months of refurbishment remaining at Steiner Shipyard in Bayou Le Batre, Ala., before making the trip upriver. Two diesel engines have been added to work in combination with the historic vessel’s 1915 steam engines.

River Family

Troy Manthey, president and CEO of Manthey Hospitality, based in Tampa, Fla., has worked for more than four years to purchase and restore the two vessels and launch company subsidiary Nashville Riverboats. For him, it was a labor of love and one that builds on his family history.

Manthey is a fifth-generation descendant of John Streckfus Sr., who started a steamboat packet company in 1884 that eventually evolved into a river excursion business and was incorporated as Streckfus Steamboat Line Company in 1910. Streckfus Steamers, as it became known, continued in business into the late 1970s.

“I worked out on the boats as a young, young kid and just fell in love with the industry,” Manthey said.

Manthey was raised “on the riverfront” in New Orleans and at one time ran the New Orleans Paddlewheels business, with its boats the Creole Queen and Cajun Queen. He also built casino boats, one of which operated in New Orleans. Eventually, Manthey founded his excursion boat business in Tampa, which now includes sightseeing vessels, water taxis and even pirate cruise boats that serve as family attractions. Over the past 24 years, the company’s fleet has grown to 14 vessels. It is now the largest operator in the Tampa Bay area and the largest dining cruise operator in the state of Florida, he said.

With all of his success in the blue-water business, however, Manthey said he wanted an opportunity to get back to his river roots.

“I really just wanted to get back to the river,” he said. “It’s my first love, and so I started looking for other cities to do business in. I also started looking for boats.”

Boat History

Manthey purchased the Julia Belle Swain in late 2020 in La Crosse, Wis. A nonprofit foundation had placed the boat for sale after being unable to complete an extensive renovation. The boat is the third remaining operational authentic steamboat on the Western Rivers, the other two being the steamers Belle of Louisville in Louisville, Ky., and the Natchez in New Orleans.

According to an Old Boat Column by the late Keith Norrington, published in The Waterways Journal in November 2021, The Julia Belle Swain was designed by Capt. Dennis Trone and completed in 1971. It was the last boat ever constructed by the Dubuque Boat and Boiler Works of Dubuque, Iowa.

The 400-passenger steamer was constructed on a steel hull 108 feet long by 27 feet wide with a draft of 3 feet. A single automatic boiler, manufactured by the Vapor Corporation, supplied the steam. The Gillett & Eaton reciprocating engines (12-inch cylinders with 5-foot stroke) manufactured at Lake City, Minn., were recycled from the catamaran ferry City of Baton Rouge, completed at the Howard Shipyard in 1916 and operated at Baton Rouge, La., until 1968.

For business reasons, Manthey said it made more sense to operate two boats than it did one, which led him to purchase the Spirit of Peoria from the city of Peoria (Ill.) That sale was finalized in 2022.

The Spirit of Peoria operated as an excursion vessel. It was designed by Alan Bates and built by Walker Boat Yard in Paducah, Ky. Manthey said that renaming the vessel the Capitol pays tribute to a former Streckfus Steamer vessel that he described as its “prettiest sternwheel.” The namesake vessel operated from 1920 to 1945. Famed jazz musician Louis Armstrong played on it, and it was Manthey’s uncles who hired Armstrong out of the French Quarter when Armstrong was a teenager, Manthey said.

“So there’s a big musical connection there,” he said. He also noted that Nashville is known as “Music City,” but, before that, it was often called “River City,” as it is on the banks of the Cumberland River. Nashville is the capital of Tennessee, so a boat whose name is Capitol and has a namesake connected to a musical legend makes sense for the city, Manthey said.

Additionally, he said, “Nashville is really craving some family-friendly attractions, and this checks all of those boxes.”

Preserving And Modernizing

Both boats have undergone extensive renovations.

The Capitol was repowered with 400 kW diesel electric generators driven by Volvo D13 engines from Florida Detroit Diesel.

The Nashville also received D13 series Volvos with 400 hp. rating at 1,800 rpm. They will run in tandem with the steamboat’s 110-year-old steam engines, allowing for redundancy in propulsion and added safety.

“We intend to steam her every day,” Manthey said. “The whole reason we’re going down this path is to tell the river story and river history, and steaming is a big part of that.”

He added that the company is working to build not only a team of licensed steam engineers but a program that can train the next generation of them, helping to keep steamboating alive in the decades to come.

Manthey and Gary Frommelt of St. Louis, a licensed steam engineer and veteran of the rivers who is serving as vice president of development for Manthey Hospitality, have overseen extensive work on the steamer, including adding stability by widening the boat with 3-foot sponsons on each side. The extra efforts mean it should take another four to six months to finish the Nashville, but Manthey said it is expected to arrive in the city in late spring.

As a nod to the past, both boats will have smokestacks designed exactly “to a T” like the Streckfus Steamers smokestacks of the past, Manthey said.

“Both boats have been totally renovated and reconditioned until they’re basically like new, from new engines and boilers to piping to the electrical to the paint job to the interior,” he said. “Basically, they’re coming out like brand new boats, so we couldn’t be more proud of them. We think they’re two of the prettiest sternwheelers ever built, and we’re super excited about it.”

Both boats will run year-round. Manthey said the Nashville primarily will offer sightseeing excursions. The Capitol primarily will offer brunch, lunch and dinner cruises and be available for convention charters and destination weddings. The wedding business, in particular, has been a good fit for Manthey Hospitality in Tampa, where about 220 weddings a year take place on its vessels.

Additionally, Manthey said he would like to bring the Nashville to Louisville, Ky., for the Kentucky Derby Festival, which holds the Great Steamboat Race yearly, making it once again a contest between steam-powered riverboats.

Television Debut

Some timely television exposure may also help.

As the Julia Belle Swain, the Nashville made its debut on the silver screen, first in the 1973 movie “Tom Sawyer,” as the River Queen, then in the 1974 movie “Huckleberry Finn.” It also featured in the opening and closing title screens of the 1979 television series “Huckleberry Finn and His Friends.”

Now, the Capitol is getting its own share of national TV attention. In October, producers for the ABC drama series “9-1-1: Nashville” shot an episode in Nashville that features the boat. While Manthey can’t divulge details, it is set to be the first episode airing in January after the fall break.

Manthey said the TV show will be welcome national exposure for Nashville’s newest sternwheelers as the company finishes up in the next few months by hiring a Nashville-based workforce and docking first the Capitol and then the Nashville in their new, permanent moorings.

He quipped, “We are really full steam ahead, for lack of better words.”

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Featured photo caption: The Capitol on the Cumberland River in Nashville, Tenn., in October. The vessel was previously known as the Spirit of Peoria. Both the Capitol and the steamer Nashville (formerly the Julia Belle Swain) are being relocated to Nashville and will be available for excursions and chartered events in 2026. (Photo courtesy of Nashville Riverboats)