Retired Captain Gets to Briefly Go Back ‘Home’

Author F. Scott Fitzgerald famously said, “It’s a funny thing coming home. Nothing changes. Everything looks the same, feels the same. … You realized what’s changed is you.”

Capt. Bob Reynolds knows something about that. Reynolds is a Renaissance man, at least in river parlance. He became interested in the steamer Delta Queen as a young boy living in the Memphis area, and in 1971, at age 14, he made a trip on it, an overnight journey from Memphis to Osceola, Ark., and back. His father had felt the fare was excessive at $68 ($573 in 2026 dollars), so he used his own savings, earned from a paper route and odd jobs, to purchase the passage.

What resulted was the stirring of a love for the legendary vessel and the river in general. He made one more trip aboard the Delta Queen as a passenger a while later and then, in 1975, he secured a job aboard the vessel during the summer between his junior and senior years in high school. In 1976, he returned to the boat as a full-time deckhand. While Reynolds cherishes the memories and experience of working with feted rivermen such as Capts. Ernest Wagner, Carroll S. “Rip” Ware, Harry Louden and many, many others, one individual he met has had a lasting impact.

During a trip on the Upper Mississippi, a young lady was aboard as a passenger. Her grandfather had been friends with Wagner since his days on the steamer Avalon (now the Belle of Louisville) in the 1950s. While Reynolds was working a bumper, keeping the side of the boat from contacting a lock wall, the girl had some candy to toss to kids watching the boat lock through and dropped a piece down to him as well. As she was departing the boat, she passed him her phone number and address. A romance blossomed, and today Bob and Sharon Reynolds have been married 47 years and have two adult sons.

Sharon Reynolds also spent time working on the Delta Queen, and both were working aboard when President Jimmy Carter and his family made a trip in 1979, making the boat briefly “Steamboat 1” (The Waterways Journal December 11, 2023). Bob Reynolds eventually sat for his mate license and, in 1979, obtained his first class pilot license. Now officially “Capt.” Reynolds, he had a desire to move to the pilothouse but could see that process would take a long time at the Delta Queen company, given the able cadre of pilots already employed there.

He decided to make a bit of a shift in his career path and morphed into the towing industry. He first went to Inland Oil as a deckhand to align himself with the best practices in a different aspect of river work. He then went to Le Beouf Brothers as a pilot and also worked for some others until joining Magnolia Marine Transport (MMT) in 1991. He would spend the next 33 years there.

For 16 of his years at MMT, Reynolds was master of the 3,800 hp. towboat Magnolia. This boat was one of a popular series of similar vessels built by Greenville (Miss.) Shipbuilding Corporation and came out in 1971 as the Jim Vickers for Vickers Towing Company, Inc. of Greenville. According to the Inland River Record, it is 141 by 34.6 feet and is powered by a pair of GM 16-567DE2 engines with 3.056:1 Western reduction gears. It was sold to MMT in 1992 and renamed Magnolia.

Reynolds was in charge of the Magnolia so long that his name became synonymous with the vessel, as so often happens when one person is associated with a boat for many consecutive years. As he was nearing retirement, he decided to step back from a master position and worked three years as pilot aboard the 3,000 hp. Lester Cruse before retiring from MMT on August 8, 2024.

Reynolds made a very special trip last October, when he served as pilot aboard the steamer Natchez as it journeyed from New Orleans to the River Roots Festival at Cincinnati. During the festival, he continued to stand regular watches as pilot while the vessel made the many festival cruises. Reynolds had volunteered in the traffic coordination group during the last Tall Stacks Festival in 2006, so he was very familiar with the cruise routines. Following River Roots, he was aboard for the trip back south as well.

For some time, MMT had been utilizing the Magnolia on the upper Ohio and Kanawha rivers. The decision was made to switch it out with another MMT vessel and bring it back to the company facilities at Vicksburg, Miss. Capt. Michael Carpenter, director of vessel operations at MMT, contacted Reynolds and asked if he would like to make the trip to bring his old “home” back to Vicksburg. Reynolds readily accepted the offer.

Reynolds boarded the Lillian Louise of MMT at Memphis and travelled up the Lower Mississippi and Ohio rivers to the MMT plant at Newell, W.Va., Mile 47 Ohio River, where he met the Magnolia and swapped boats. The Magnolia, with Reynolds aboard once again, made the return trip to Vicksburg, arriving just before Easter.

Reynolds reports that he very much enjoyed the trip and appreciates MMT for allowing him to make it. He likes his retirement but said that it was nice to be able to go back “home” again for a few days and that he found the pilothouse equipment was still arranged much as it had been all the years that he was regular master.

Reynolds lives in Paragould, Ark., remains active by occasionally taking trip work and is an involved member of the Sons & Daughters of Pioneer Rivermen, serving on the board of governors for several years while Sharon Reynolds was the organization’s secretary.

Featured photo caption: The Magnolia upbound at mile 448.5 Ohio River. (Photo courtesy of the Capt. Bill Judd collection)