But in late 1980, the riverboat was accidentally dropped from a crane, attempting to lift it into the dry dock area for a routine overhaul, and its hull was completely destroyed beyond repair.
(meta data) TITLE: Liberty Square Riverboat | WDW Radio - Your Walt Disney World Information Station by Lou Mongello 12 captures 29 May 2010 - 27 Sep 2022 About this capture COLLECTED BY Organization: Internet Archive The Internet Archive discovers and captures web pages through many different web crawls. At any given time several distinct crawls are running, some for months, and some every day or longer. View the web archive through the Wayback Machine. Collection: Wikipedia Outlinks February 2012 Crawl of outlinks from wikipedia.org started February, 2012. These files are currently not publicly accessible. The Wayback Machine - https://web.archive.org/web/20120614142901/http://www.wdwradio.com/2007/09/liberty-square-riverboat/ WDWRadio Live! # Liberty Square Riverboat By: Lou Mongello on Monday, September 17th, 2007 Although the Rivers of America may seem quite deep, it is only about 7 feet. How can a riverboat like the Liberty Belle float and traverse such shallow water? Well, believe it or not, the Liberty Belle riverboat actually rides along a rail that is attached to the riverbed below. What the water was drained from the river in 1996, maintenance trucks were able to drive around the dry riverbed, with their roofs just reaching what would have been the water line! The Admiral Joe Fowler took its first trip around the River of America on October 2, 1971 – just one day after Walt Disney World opened. A "D-Ticket" attraction , the boat was named after a retired U.S. Navy admiral who was responsible for overseeing the construction of both Disneyland and Walt Disney World. Unfortunately, during routine maintenance in dry dock in 1980, the boat was dropped from a crane and sustained irreparable hull damage, forcing it into early retirement. The other riverboat that traveled the Rivers of American was the Richard F. Irvine. Known as the Liberty Belle since 1996, the Irvine didn't debut until May 20, 1973 . After the name change to the Liberty Belle, two of the ferry boats between the Magic Kingdom and the Transportation and Ticket Center were renamed the "Richard Irvine" (originally "Magic Kingdom 1″), and the "Admiral Joe Fowler" (originally "Magic Kingdom 2″) The Liberty Square Riverboat is a leisurely 17-minute ferry boat ride around the Rivers of America. Splash Mountain is the next longest ride at 11 minutes, followed by the Haunted Mansion at 8 minutes, and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad at just about 4 minutes. The Liberty Belle Riverboat is a real, working paddle steamer, built entirely from scratch in dry dock at Walt Disney World. Everything about the Belle is authentic and working, except for the steering, since the boat travels on a steel track hidden underwater! The 400-passenger steam wheel paddle boat Richard F. Irvine was the first boat built at the Walt Disney World on-site metal shop. Construction took approximately six months. View of the cabin and bait shop from the Riverboat ### Leave a Reply Click here to cancel reply. Name (required) Mail (will not be published) (required) Your Comment Subscribe by RSS Email the show at lou@wdwradio.com Call our voicemail at 407-900-9391 (WDW1) If you like the show, please let others know by reviewing it on iTunes. 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Visit Disney's official web site at Disney.com - As to Disney artwork/properties: © Disney - Disclosure. #### Get our Free E-Mail Newsletter Email Address - required Latest Podcast Upcoming Events Newsletter Signup (meta data) TITLE: Admiral Joe Fowler and Richard F. Irvine Riverboats  17 captures 08 Apr 2015 - 18 Jan 2022 About this capture COLLECTED BY Collection: Wikipedia Outlinks March 2016 Crawl of outlinks from wikipedia.org started March, 2016. These files are currently not publicly accessible. Properties of this collection. It has been several years since the last time we did this. For this collection, several things were done: 1. Turned off duplicate detection. This collection will be complete, as there is a good chance we will share the data, and sharing data with pointers to random other collections, is a complex problem. 2. For the first time, did all the different wikis. The original runs were just against the enwiki. This one, the seed list was built from all 865 collections. The Wayback Machine - https://web.archive.org/web/20170305053738/http://waltdatedworld.com/id141.htm Mouseketeer Alison's Walt Dated World Please show your support for this site by donating to the PayPal box on the main page. Thank you! Walt Dated World | home Admiral Joe Fowler and Richard F. Irvine Riverboats | Country Bear Christmas Special | Country Bear Vacation Hoedown | Davy Crockett's Explorer Canoes | Diamond Horseshoe Revue Show Formats | Hall of Presidents: Original Show | Mike Fink Keel Boats | Frontierland/Liberty Square Shops and Restaurants Admiral Joe Fowler and Richard F. Irvine Riverboats # Admiral Joe Fowler Riverboat Named after the retired navy admiral who was in charge of construction for Disneyland and Walt Disney World, the Admiral Joe Fowler riverboat didn't travel the Rivers of America on opening day in 1971. It premiered a day later on October 2. It used to require a D ticket. The other riverboat, the Richard F. Irvine didn't debut until May 20, 1973. It was named after a Disney designer and WED executive. It is the only riverboat that currently travels the Rivers of America and was renamed the Liberty Belle in 1996. In 1997, the Magic Kingdom II ferryboat was renamed the Richard F. Irvine. Both boats docked at a landing right in the middle of Liberty Square and traveled around the Rivers of America to view sights such as the burning settler's cabin and Indian village. The boats would also steam past attractions such as Tom Sawyer Island, Big Thunder Mountain and the Haunted Mansion. In 1980, The Admiral Joe Fowler was taken to dry dock for routine rehab. While the boat was being lifted by crane, it slipped and the hull was completely destroyed. The boat was then retired due to "mechanical problems". The broken boat was taken to the backstage "bone yard" for awhile before being buried somewhere on the property. The Liberty Belle supposedly has a life ring from the Admiral Joe Fowler on board. (Special thanks to SJHYM at LaughingPlace.com for information on the Admiral Joe Fowler.) Back to Frontierland/Liberty Square This is an unofficial fan site that is not affiliated with the Walt Disney Company or Disney theme parks. All copyrights acknowledged. Please respect the work I put into compiling both existing and my own information on this site by not linking to any text or pictures without crediting that they were located on this site. See ya real soon!
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Admiral Joe Fowler Riverboat
History.
The riverboat was built by Tampa Ship Repair & Dry Dock Company in Tampa, Florida, the same place where the Walt Disney World Railroad's (WDWRR) four steam locomotives were refurbished. 
 Strangely, the "Admiral Joe Fowler" riverboat hadn't entered service yet until a day later, after the Magic Kingdom park opened on October 1, 1971. On May 20, 1973, a second riverboat named the "Richard F. Irvine", which had been renamed as "Liberty Belle" in 1996, have entered service.