by Callie Lyons
February 23, 2010
Days after the Becky Thatcher Showboat began sinking into the Ohio River near Pittsburgh, a Florida real estate investor is still listing the vessel as “available for purchase” on his website at barryestern.com.
The website features a slideshow of the Becky during some of her last days on the Muskingum River in Marietta - just after an extensive renovation by current owner Jeffrey Levin of Nashville.
The boat, which was purchased in anticipation of Marietta’s bicentennial celebration, departed the Pioneer City last October and was towed to Neville Island for docking.
There, witnesses say, last weekend the boat began to sink and collapse under the weight of the snow. The real estate listing by Barry Stern, which had been updated since the Becky’s relocation, says, “A Marine Insurance policy on the Becky Thatcher is provided by Essex Insurance of Virginia, and consists of both liability and physical damage coverage.”
Levin could not be reached and Stern did not answer or return calls placed to his phone seeking additional information.
Johanna Owen King of Marietta was in Pittsburgh visiting a friend over the weekend when she received a text message about the Becky Thatcher.
“The plan was just to find it and take a couple of pictures and put them on Facebook for friends,” Owen King said.
But, soon those photos became news and a primary source of information about the status of the boat. She said taking the photos was no easy task. The Becky Thatcher was in an “ugly, dark, devastated area” and it was difficult to locate.
But, Owen King was persistent and she found the boat sinking in a heavily industrial area behind the Frontier Steel Company.
“If you saw where it was, that was the sad part. It was not in a place where anyone on the island particularly knew where it was,” she said. “You couldn’t find it unless you really searched.”
The boat had been for sale for some time, but Owen King says it wasn’t in a location conducive to shoppers.
“It wasn’t over there to be marketed,” she said. “Why was it where it was?”
Yet another question has been haunting many Mariettans who have seen Johanna’s pictures. Where is the Becky Thatcher’s distinctive paddlewheel, which seems to be missing from the photos of the sinking vessel?
“I don’t think it was there,” she said.
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