Chapter 17: Jesse and Marie

As Jesse and Marie stepped off the levee and onto the landing stage of the Irish Princess, Jesse paused to marvel at the riverboat. Marie had said that three of the boats owned by her father were smaller, "packet" boats that carried lots of cargo and some passengers.

This one was the pride of Sean's fleet and the one he captained. The Irish Princess was a large, "Cincinnati" class boat, that is, one of the large passenger boats built for speed and elegance. She was, in effect, a floating palace of three full decks with passenger cabins running the entire length of the upper two decks.

The boat had space for cargo only on the boiler deck. No livestock would be carried on this passenger ship.

A few years before the war, the Irish Princess had cost some $75,000 to build. She weighed around 670 tons and could carry an additional 1,200 tons. The boat was two hundred and seventy feet long with a beam of forty two feet. She was also equipped with the most recent design of boilers at the time she was built--the Lancashire twin boiler with Galloway Tubes. With this new boiler system, the Irish Princess had a travel time of five days, give or take a half day, from Naw'lins to Louisville.

The first deck, or boiler deck was the point of entrance in the bow off the landing stage. Jesse and Marie started across this deck to the grand staircase that led up to the second or cabin deck, a/k/a, the hurricane deck.

Jesse knew the boiler deck contained what cargo space the boat had available. Cargo was stacked around the boiler complex and around the wood fuel pile in the bow proper. Cargo space also stretched toward the stern between the sides of the boat and the boiler area and just behind the boiler. The rear quarter of the boiler deck at the stern was occupied by the steam engine that ran the Pitman shaft and other machinery of the rear paddle wheel.

When Jesse looked through the open deck toward the stern and thought, Thunderation! This is one big piece of boat!

Steam was already hissing loudly around the boiler.

As the couple climbed the grand staircase to the hurricane deck, to look for their cabin, the landing stage was already being winched upwards and the boat was slowly moving away from the levee. The loud shrieks of the boat's steam whistle, signaling this movement, startled both of them.

The forward deck at the top of the grand staircase led off in either direction to the promenade that fronted the cabins on either side, or directly forward into the main salon or "Palace" that ran most of the entire length of this deck between the rows of passenger cabins on either side of the deck. Those cabins had two doors, one opening onto the promenade and one opening directly into the salon.

Marie said, "Jesse, let's peek into the salon first. Since this is your first experience on a river steamer, I want you to see where we will take our meals and can come to relax outside of the cabin, especially if the weather turns bad. We can find our cabin number on the salon side as well as on the promenade side."

Jesse dutifully opened one of the large double entrance doors to the salon and held it open for Marie to enter first.

Jesse gasped as he entered behind Marie, "Good heavens, I didn't realize these boats were so luxurious. You warned me, but still..." Luxury indeed.

The Cincinnati class boats, as opposed to the more common work or packet boats, were especially built for luxurious and leisurely travel. The salon on the Irish Princess sported huge, cut glass chandeliers with their kerosene lamps, elegant linen table cloths, and expensive chairs and benches of native wood from North Carolina.

Cutlery and china were equally elegant and expensive. Rich, deep carpeting covered the deck. About one third of the rear of the salon was partitioned off and labeled as, "gentlemen only."

Marie said, "That area is for poker games that go on for days without stopping, private parties, and such things."

The rest was dining space but was also used between meals for "friendly" poker games, "friendly" unless a professional riverboat gambler sat down at your game!

Jesse found their cabin amidships and he led Marie over to the door. Jesse dug the key from his pocket and unlocked the door for them to enter. Their personal luggage was already waiting for them on the deck floor as once again, elegant furnishings in a moderately spacious cabin greeted them.

Rich carpeting and bed linens along with hard wood chairs and a table, delicate chimneys on the kerosene lamps, and other niceties were the order of the day.

Marie said to Jesse, "The next deck up, the Texas deck, is about the same except that a group of those cabins are less elegant and reserved for the officers of the crew. The wheel house sits up on the roof of those cabins. We can go up there after a while and Daddy can show you the sights from that high vantage point.

"Yes, I'd like to see that."

"Right now," replied Marie, "I just want to lie down and rest before the evening meal is served. Would you like to join me for a while first?"

Marie started to undress Jesse.

"I thought you said, 'nap'!" teased Jesse. "This doesn't look like a nap to me!"

"I, know," said Marie, "but ever since our first time, you have awakened a monster in me--a delightful monster! I can't get enough of you, looking at you naked with your cock at full attention for me, or fucking you. I want to fuck all the time--with you! I love fucking and how you make me feel, full and complete. So come on now, let's get these clothes off.

They slowly undressed each other until both were naked and then they lay down side by side on the bed, just holding each other tight and staring into the other's eyes.

Jesse's left hand was over top of Marie and it slowly roved around on her buttocks. His hand explored the divide between her buttocks and slid deeper down to tease her anus.

As his hand delved lower, Marie raised her upper leg some to give Jesse better access. He switched his hand around front between their two bodies and explored the moist slit from the front, edging slowly deeper and deeper into the soft folds of Marie's pussy.

Marie had her hand between them also and was similarly busy, slowly pumping Jesse's cock which already was at full attention. She raised her leg a bit more and positioned Jesse's cock between her folds.

"Now, Jesse, stick your cock in my pussy. Now! Fuck me!"

Jesse did. Whether because of pent up desire or what, both climaxed rather quickly and lay in each other's arms in the after glow.

Jesse quietly whispered, "I thought 'good' girls didn't talk dirty. Didn't think they knew how!"

"Shows what you know," Marie chided back, "I don't talk dirty--normally. I observe the social amenities for females of our times. But when we're fucking, it just comes out that way."

"Well don't stop," said Jesse, "when we're fucking, I like you to talk dirty."

Marie talked dirty for another hour!"

Later, while Marie dozed, Jesse rose and dressed. It was too early yet for the evening meal, so he decided to take a stroll around the deck promenade. Besides, he had to relieve his bladder.

Marie had told him he would find the "facilities" at the stern, by the paddle wheel. The noise level in the privy was elevated. Not only was there noise of the mechanical connections turning the huge paddle wheel, but the steam calliope on the Texas deck above was wailing loudly also.