Actually Wikipedia is sortof correct on this one, the Original Admiral Joe Fowler was a riverboat on the Rivers of america in frontierland, it first served Oct 2, 1971 (I'm not sure why it wasn't open on the 1st, which was opening day after all), the Admiral Joe Fowler was basically a twin of the Mark Twain at
Disneyland Two smokestack cofiguration and all. The Fowler was damaged in a refurbrishment in the 1980s when put into dry dock it aparently wasn't sitting correctly ain the cradle and as the water drained out it shifted damaging the hull, it would have been a big expense to repair it, and it was decided it was not needed badly enough to justify the expense. It's sister Ship the Richard F Irvine has One smokestack it came online in about 1973, WDW's central shops was proud of just how much of it was built right there (at WDW) the Irvine was re-christened the "Liberty Belle" in about 1996.
In 2001 it was decided that in honor of WDW's 30th anniversary it was only fitting to honor some of the folks that had to do so much with the building of the parks, in this vein the Ferries that traverse the Seven Seas Lagoon were re-christened, they had formerly been the Magic Kingdom, Magic Kingdom II, and the Kingdom Queen, thier new names are the Admiral Joe Fowler, Richard F. Irvine, and General Joe Potter. If this isn't already more than you want to know about the ferries there is more about them on my site:
www.bigbrian-nc.com/7seasb.htm
there is also a page on the original Admiral Joe Fowler:
www.bigbrian-nc.com/wdw-pc05.htm
