Ext3 users - Apr 2003 - ext3 "noload" option to mount returning error in 2.4.9 & 2.4.18 s eries kernel

I have an ext3 filesystem that I want to mount without loading the journal.
I tried the "noload" option with both 2.4.9 and 2.4.18 series kernels
and
get the errors listed below.

[root@host]# mount -t ext3 -o noload /dev/sdf1 /mnt
mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/sdf1,
       or too many mounted file systems

/var/log/messages:
Apr 18 13:30:23 host kernel: ext3: No journal on filesystem on sd(8,81)

Is my syntax incorrect?  What specifically is the noload option for.  In 
the 2.4.18 kernel sources it looks like "noload" will always give this
error
if the "noload" option is set.

        if (!test_opt(sb, NOLOAD) &&
            EXT3_HAS_COMPAT_FEATURE(sb, EXT3_FEATURE_COMPAT_HAS_JOURNAL)) {
                if (ext3_load_journal(sb, es))
                        goto failed_mount2;
        } else if (journal_inum) {
                if (ext3_create_journal(sb, es, journal_inum))
                        goto failed_mount2;
        } else {
                if (!silent)
                        printk (KERN_ERR
                                "ext3: No journal on filesystem on
%s\n",
                                bdevname(dev));
                goto failed_mount2;
        }

Any help is appreciated.

Thanks,
Leslie Kuczynski