Patty Gordon
The Patty Gordon was an 87-foot stern wheel riverboat commissioned by Al Woodward in 1983. It was designed by J. B. Hargrave Naval Architects, Inc. of West Palm Beach, Florida and Irving Cunliffe of Henry Sprott Long & Associates. The craft contained six large staterooms with private baths, a mahogany-paneled salon with fireplace, a dining room with crystal chandelier, and an elevator to the Texas deck. It was reported to have been named for a prostitute.
Eventually the steam-powered boat was converted to diesel and was used to run commercial charters from St Augustine and Jacksonville, Florida. Actress Debbie Reynolds purchased the boat for her Hollywood Motion Picture Museum in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, but the craft, renamed the Jean Mary, sank in six feet of water during a storm. The boat was salvaged, but remained at Green Cove Springs on the St John River.
The Apalachicola Maritime Museum of Apalachicola, Florida negotiated the donation of the damaged riverboat from Reynolds' son, Todd Fisher. The museum renamed it the Samuel A. Floyd in honor of a Florida riverboat captain and great-grandfather of the museum's founder. The museum plans excursions up the Apalachicola, Flint and Chattahoochee Rivers as far as Columbus, Georgia.
External links
- video of the Jean Mary on Youtube.com
- video of the restoration at wfsu.org