Captain Lowriver is the main antagonist of the Lucky Luke comic Steaming Up The Mississippi. He is the captain of the Asbestos D. Plower ship and the rival of Captain Barrows who wants to get rid of him so he can get the exclusive rights to sail on the Mississippi.
After a brief argument which is stopped by Lucky Luke, he decides to make a deal with Barrows, which consists of having a race so they can settle on who gains the rights or not. In hopes of winning the race before Lowriver does, he hires several henchmen in order to slow down and even stop the Daisy Belle's progression. However, all of his henchmen are dispatched by Luke, who is on Barrow's side. After losing the race, he decides to retire from his job and go to the deserts of Arizona, ultimately defeated.
Biography[]
Background[]
Little is known about Lowriver's past. As mentioned by Barrows, Captain Lowriver is a pirate with a dark past and nebulous future. He has been shown to evict several other captains from sailing in dishonest manners.
Steaming Up The Mississippi[]
Captain Lowriver is first seen having an argument with Barrows on their rights to sail on the Mississippi, wrecking the saloon in the process. Eventually, Lowriver attempts to kill Barrows, but Luke steps in and quickly puts an end to the argument by shooting Lowriver's gun out of his hand. Furious at this, he tells the cow-boy that it's none of his business, but Luke says that he doesn't like the way he fought Barrows. Lowriver then leaves, vowing revenge. Afterwards, Barrows tells Luke the history of Lowriver.
Lowriver later returns to the saloon, much to Luke and Barrows' shock. However, as Luke was about to strike again, Lowriver tells him to put his gun down, as he is simply here to settle a deal with Barrows so they can decide who will own the rights to sail on the Mississippi via a race. Luke lets him in and watches him and Barrows talking about how the race will go on. Lowriver then provokes Barrows by saying he would hesitate with that "washtub" he has, angering Barrows. The deal settled, he leaves the saloon, saying that the race will begin the next day. While Luke and Barrows leave, Lowriver spies on them from behind a wall, overhearing that they will be the winners of the race. Not wanting to let that happen, he hires Cards Devon, a professional card sharp, to slow down the Daisy Belle.
When the day of the race arrives, Lowriver and Barrows start mocking each other as their boats start sailing. At first, Lowriver seems to beat the Daisy Belle, as Cards Devon was playing poker with Bang, who took away all of his wages, forcing him to play the game several times, which slows down the boat as the boiler wasn't filled with wood. Eventually, the Daisy Belle returns to normal speed as Cards Devon is defeated by Luke, thwarting Lowriver's plan. However, Lowriver doesn't give up and later hires Ironhead Wilson, a brutish brawler known to have plagued many banks, to cause mayhem in the Daisy Belle, slowing it down again. As he was throwing the supplies down into the water, he is stopped by Lucky Luke who tosses him into the water, thwarting Lowriver's plan again, though Wilson damaged the boiler, nearly causing the ship to explode, but Bang was able to repair it, leading to the Daisy Belle resuming it's progress.
Lowriver then sends a message to Barrows, saying that while the boiler was being repaired, he was already in Memphis, their next stop. This angers Barrows who refuses to have Lowriver win and orders his ship to go full steam ahead so they can catch him. However, the ship was still sinking due to the Mississippi's depths, though they eventually find a coast that isn't too depth for the Daisy Belle to sail on, quickly beating Lowriver as his ship is stuck on a small part of dirt, which annoys Lowriver, ordering everyone on his boat to free his ship. It would eventually be able to sail again when the water quickly rises.
After his ship was now free again, Lowriver hires Dynamite Wilson to get on the Daisy Belle and blow it up to pieces with a bomb hidden in his bag. The plan seems to work well at first, but the bomb is noticed under the boiler and taken back to the saloon, where Lowriver and Harris were drinking. They desperately attempt to get rid of the bomb, while fearing it's explosion. Harris reassures him that the bomb is no longer inside the bag, but little does he know is that the bomb was actually still inside the bag, blowing up the saloon and thwarted Lowriver's plan once more, now wanting Luke dead.
Back on his ship, Lowriver seems to catch up on the Daisy Belle, due to the numerous debris floating around the water, endangering their way to Minneapolis. Smirking at this, he plans to hire one last henchman in St. Louis to kill Lucky Luke once and for all so Barrows would ultimately lose. In St. Louis, Lowriver is told by an Indian that Pistol Pete, a killer-for-hire, is inisde the saloon. There, Lowriver hires him to get on the Daisy Belle and murder Lucky Luke. Unfortunately, Pistol Pete is defeated by Luke when he inadvertently wasted all of his bullets on shooting coins and cards, resulting in his arrest.
Despite this, Lowriver's ship is on the last stop before Minneapolis and therefore Barrows and Luke have one last chance to catch up on it before it reaches the end of the race. Luke decides to go to Dubuque, where the Asbestos D. Plower is docked. There, he forces Lowriver to play poker day and night so the Daisy Belle would pass by him, catching up to it. Seeing how he was distracted, he decides to get rid of all the passengers on the ship to make it lighter and faster, but they all refuse as they were paid to go to Minneapolis, though one of them is thrown out as he insults the ship, only to be hit with a bag.
Lowriver and Barrows then sail towards Minneapolis once more. However, the Asbestos D. Plower starts going faster to outrun the Daisy Belle, as they were slowing down due to the risk of the boiler blowing up and killing everyone on board. This makes Lowriver amazed, but he doesn't realize that there is so much wood in the boiler that the safety valve is open. Lowriver then closes the valve and orders for more wood to be put in the boiler, but the ship explodes due to the boiler overheating, ultimately defeating Lowriver.
As the Asbestos D. Plower was destroyed, Lowriver loses the race as the Daisy Belle safetly reaches Minneapolis. Saddened by the defeat, he lets Barrows have the rights to sail, though he is given a chance to sail on the Mississippi along with him, as there's enough place on the river to have more ships. Lowriver refuses and decides to go to the deserts of Arizona, as he no longer likes water due to the damage it caused to his ship during the race.
Trivia[]
- Captain Lowriver's appearance is similar to Senator Stormwind, who would appear as the main antagonist of The Black Hills, published two years later.
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