With forty fifty-five-gallon oil drums bracketed together, fifteen boys between the ages of twelve and fifteen, three college interns, and one fearless leader boarded the homemade raft dubbed the Unsinkable in the summer of 1961. Their goal was to traverse the 1,742 miles of the Mississippi River between Minneapolis, Minnesota, to New Orleans, Louisiana. In New Orleans or Sunk! author Dean E. Felsing narrates this story of an incredible crew on an unbelievable expedition. At the time, Felsing was a fourteen-year-old boy and a member of the Weekend Program for troubled kids. The trip was part of the boys' summer vacation, and it was an adventure for all. From start to finish, he provides details of the journey that included spending ten hours a day on the water, traversing the river's many locks, fighting the weather's capriciousness, dealing with equipment failures, and learning to live with the other boys on a raft. Felsing describes how he and the others conquered the mighty Mississippi that summer by taking turns as lookouts, pilots, navigators, cooks, mechanics, housekeepers, inventors, and explorers. New Orleans or Sunk! shares how they learned to appreciate the kindness of strangers and to understand the power of the river.

New Orleans or Sunk!

By DEAN E. FELSING

Abbott Press

Copyright © 2011 Dean E. Felsing
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4582-0092-1

Chapter One

For the Staff and Crew of the Unsinkable

It was the beginning of the school year 1960, I had just turned 14. Ninth grade, and there we sat in a small room, about 15 of us kids and two or three staff members, it was announced to us that we needed to come up with a plan for next summer's vacation. We could do anything within reason and or legal. We were told that if we did not come up with a plan we would spend the summer at the Hennepin County Home School (kid jail) in Glen Lake, Minnesota. For some odd reason this idea appealed to a few of the boys. Well, I remember the first idea, or suggestion, was to ride our horses to the Black Hills in South Dakota. I didn't like the idea; I did not care for horses all that much and I know that my horse, Cindy, did not care all that much for me. I said something to the effect of taking a raft down the Mississippi River. The idea was pushed aside and all the fellas, except me, were excited about the trip to South Dakota.

The very next weekend the man, Max, in charge of the horses spoke to the group. He told us that it was indeed possible for us to accomplish such a trip; the horses were in fine shape and about all we needed to do was prepare. By the time Max got through with the list of things we would have to do to get ready, I knew that I would rather stay at the Home School.

Some of the others felt the same way; it sounded like too much work. Then one of the boys, Eddie, said, "Why not look into the possibilities of the "raft trip". The seed was planted, it would be easy, just toss a few logs together and off we go. At this point I think some of the staff would have been happy to spend the summer at the Home School. I only learned this fact in the year 2000, the head of the weekend program, Jack Fallon, stood in the lodge kitchen with his staff that evening while we were in bed and said that he thought that us boys could pull a raft trip off. I wish I could have been there for that brief moment, I guess it was quite a sight to see the faces of what was to become an incredible crew on an incredible expedition.

The very next weekend we were told to come up with ideas and plans for a "raft". We were all assigned a hand full of town's along the river and we had to write a letter to every city. The letters stated about when we would be through and asked for information on that town, i.e., things like what to see and where to get supplies, gas, and food, etc.

We were enrolled in a water safety class given by the Coast Guard in Minneapolis. Wow, locks and dams. Yup, 26 of them between Minneapolis and St. Louis. After St. Louis there are no more locks and the current is much stronger. The one thing I will never forget from that class was that life jackets are not to save you from drowning, but to make it easier for someone to find your body. We also learned about whirlpools, currents, wing dams, buoys the channel, and much more. We were each given certificates after the classes.

Now for the "raft" itself. None of us had any idea how to build a raft or anything else for that matter. It was decided that we could put a bunch of 55gal oil drums together (somehow) and that would be that. Well, it was not as easy as that. Several ideas were looked at and we found a company that made brackets for just such a raft. These brackets were for people who wanted to put together 4 or 6 drums for a diving dock at the summer cabin. It was the best we could find. The company that made the brackets almost fainted when we told them we were going to put forty oil drums together they immediately told us there was no guarantee on the parts at all. We did get them to donate 80 brackets and wish us luck.

Jack had a few ideas on how to season or toughen us up for the trip. One such fantastic idea was to take us all out in a blizzard and have us make our own dinner. Well, my buddy Jerry and I said, to ourselves of course, "Hell no, we won't go". When the group headed out the front door for the mile or so trek through the woods, Jerry and I headed out the back. We figured it would take a while to notice two missing idiots in a blizzard. We hiked the mile or so to the milk room adjacent to the barn. It was nice and warm in there and we would sit out the outdoor cooking adventure. Jerry sat down and took off his boots and put his feet up toward the stove. I was too scared to be that relaxed. Sure enough, through the flying snow I saw what looked like the Abominable Snowman. It was Jack and the fur around his hood was full of snow and his beard and glasses were frozen. I could tell he was pissed. He walked right past me and grabbed Jerry and thrashed the daylights out of him. I knew I was next. Then Jack asked Jerry why he got "it" and I didn't. Jerry said that it was because he had been at the farm longer than I had. Jack said, "Yes, that's right and next time Dean will get it". I could put it in writing that it would never happen.

As soon as the snow was gone the oil drums arrived at the farm, all forty of them. We laid them out into four rows of ten each with a three foot nose cone to be bolted to the front of each pontoon. The length of the raft would be 33 feet and the width 16 feet. Our fearless leader, Jack, found a house in Minneapolis that had been condemned. He managed to get permission for us kids to rip the insides apart with crowbars and hammers and salvage all the wood that we could carry. This wood became the deck and superstructure. We built the deck in two parts each 8 feet wide. We had a heck of a time getting the drums to stay in place with the brackets, but we managed. The two halves were hauled on a flat bed to the Mississippi River just above the U of M Showboat and just across the river from Fairview Hospital. We then "U" bolted them together and nailed the deck at a diagonal using our salvaged wood. It was starting to look like a real seaworthy vessel. We dubbed it the "Unsinkable". There was a railing out of the 2x4s put all around and a "cabin" of approximately 12' x 12' near the front. It was given a canvas roof and sides that could be rolled up when weather was nice. Around the railing we put chicken wire, which proved to be too weak, it was always being replaced or let go all together. There was a transom put out back and two 40 horse Scott outboard motors were donated. The cables used to steer with were above the deck and the steering wheel was behind the cabin, so the driver could not see where he was going. (One of our smarter moves.) Had OSHA been around we would have been shut down in a flash. At least every one of us tripped on the steering cable a dozen times before we hammered some boards on the deck to stop that hazard. At least then we only tripped on the 2x4s and the driver could still manage to keep us in the channel. By the way, remember the driver could not see where he was going! It took 7+ crew members at any one time to operate the raft. One staff member, to keep the two lookouts (stationed up front) on the ball, and one person to steer and one to navigate, that is read the charts or maps of the river. Believe it or not it is possible to get lost on a river. More about that later. There was also a gas team on call to refuel the main tanks and measure and mix the oil into the gas.

Each of us built a foot locker from our foraged wood, we made drinking cups from soup cans with an attached coat hanger for a handle. Each of us had our own mess kit and we were responsible for it. That meant if we lost it we went without...