Photo by Ken Odor
Dreaming Creek, above, is actually a gondola rather than a batteau and is the first boat to arrive Saturday, coming in a little after 4 p.m.

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Those long, flat-bottomed boats began pulling into Maidens Landing last Saturday afternoon shortly after 4 p.m., marking the end of the twenty-fifth annual James River Batteau Festival.

“It was a little harder this year,” said Sandy Shortridge, whose husband Bob captained the first boat to arrive: Dreaming Creek, which is actually a gondola and not a bateau.

Sandy said she liked the flood year, when the swift current carried the boats along.

Shortly after Dreaming Creek arrived, Captain Robert M. “Buddy” High and the Brunswick Belle pulled into sight.

“Heat was the worst thing,” said High, chairman of the festival. Low water was also a problem. High said several boats, including the Lord Chesterfield, dropped out during the week-long journey because the hot weather took a toll on the crews.

A brief respite came Thursday night, said High, when a storm dropped heavy rain on the bateau crews.

“We got soaked,” said High, “but it beat what we had been through,” referring to the unrelenting heat.

Earlier in the afternoon, spectators arrived to watch the yearly spectacle of boats.

One group at the landing was the Virginia Canals and Navigations Society, where Bill and Nancy Trout, recently awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award by the festival, were on hand to educate visitors about the history of Virginia’s inland waterways.

Bill Trout said he became interested in the river and canals as a youngster.

“It was in the Boy Scouts back in the 50s,” he said. “We used to go hiking on the canal routes.”

Trout said the history of the batteaux had been somewhat forgotten, but then development at the James Center in 1983 unearthed parts of at least 60 boats.

That sparked interest in the old ways of moving cargo, and Joe Ayers of Fluvanna built the first replica, The Columbia, in 1984.

“He was the one who got people excited,” said Trout.

The first Batteau Festival was held in 1986 and was sponsored by the Virginia Canals and Navigations Society. 

“The goal was to make it an historically oriented event,” explained Trout.

The heyday of the bateaux was from 1800 to about 1880, when numerous craft traveled Virginia’s rivers.

Hauling tobacco was the main thing, said Trout.

Trout said historically the batteaux were about 60 feet long by seven or eight feet wide, but the replica boats are usually about 55 feet long, the better to fit on the trailers. So far more than 50 replicas have been built, he said.

“This year is the biggest in a long time,” said Trout, with 25 craft starting out in Lynchburg.

As the crowd grew in anticipation of the landings, re-enactor Peter Amico, who portrays a member of the 44th Virginia Infantry from the Civil War, showed up with his percussion rifle to fire a salute as each vessel pulled in.

“I planned to fire three shots for each one,” he said.

Told that 25 boats had started out, he replied, “Maybe two shots.”

Buddy High, 64, said how the festival will fare depends on getting younger people involved.

“They are the future,” he said.

High is doing his part. His crew included grandson Nathan, aged 6.

To find out more about the batteaux and the festival, visit their website at http://www.batteau.org. The Virginia Canals and Navigations Society has its own website at http://www.vacanals.org.

Two children, below left, run along the river’s edge to get a better view of the boats.

Photos by Ken Odor
Brunswick Belle, is the second vessel to land at Maidens on Saturday.

Photos by Ken Odor
Re-enactor Peter Amico, above right,  prepares to fire a salute as the first boat comes in.

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