Impishscoundrel

I envy you that, Ichi. It's been on my bucket list for a long time to ride on a riverboat from one town to another.
Can it still be done?

The river cruises are all the rage in Europe, and now we are seeing them in America. I have taken two four hour river cruises with a meal and drinks afterwards, and our rivers are simply beautiful. I love historic cities, and to see the same from a river like Lincoln traveling to New Orleans......beautiful.

Bob wrote:But it's gotta be an authentic paddle wheeler.  And without diesel engines.
I wanta see that sucker make smoke.

I think the only one of those is the Delta queen out of New Orleans  Day trips only ......Oops  Maybe too late
Delta Queen
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Delta Queen in Memphis, Tennessee in May 2003
The Delta Queen in Memphis, Tennessee in May 2003
Career (USA)
Name: Delta Queen (1927–1941)
Delta Queen YHF 7 (1941–1944)
Delta Queen YFB 56 (1944–1947)
Delta Queen (1947–2013)
Port of registry: Cincinnati,  United States
Ordered: 1924
Builder: William Denny and Brothers, Dumbarton, Scotland
In service: 1927
Out of service: 2008
Identification: Call sign: WA4141
IMO number: 8643327
MMSI: 366950730
Status: Floating hotel
General characteristics
Type: Paddle steamer
Tonnage: 1,650 long tons (1,676 t)
Length: 285 ft (87 m)
Beam: 58 ft (18 m)
Draft: 11 ft 6 in (3.51 m)
Propulsion: Cross-compound steam engines
2,000 ihp (1,491 kW)
Stern-mounted paddlewheel
Capacity: 176 passengers
Delta Queen (river steamboat)
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. National Historic Landmark
Delta Queen is located in Tennessee

Location Coolidge Park Landing, Chattanooga, Tennessee
Coordinates 35.0599°N 85.3086°WCoordinates: 35.0599°N 85.3086°W
Built 1926, Dumbarton, Scotland
Architect William Denny and Brothers
Governing body Private
NRHP Reference # 70000495
Significant dates
Added to NRHP June 15, 1970[1]
Designated NHL June 29, 1989[2]


Time table of the Delta Queen and the Delta King in their first season in 1927
The Delta Queen is an American sternwheel steamboat that is a U.S. National Historic Landmark. Historically, she has been used for cruising the major rivers that constitute the tributaries of the Mississippi River, particularly in the American South. She is docked in Chattanooga, Tennessee and serves as a floating hotel.[3][4]

The Delta Queen is 285 feet (87 m) long, 58 feet (18 m) wide, and draws 11.5 feet (3.5 m). She weighs 1,650 tons (1,676 metric tons), with a capacity of 176 passengers. Her cross-compounded steam engines generate 2,000 indicated horsepower (1,500 kW), powering a stern-mounted paddlewheel.

Contents  [hide]
1 History
2 Current duty
3 Hauntings
4 Dispute and Potential Removal from Chattanooga
5 References
6 External links
History[edit]

The hull, first two decks, and steam engines were ordered in 1924 from the William Denny & Brothers shipyard on the River Leven adjoining the River Clyde at Dumbarton, Scotland. Delta Queen and her sister, Delta King, were shipped in pieces to Stockton, California in 1926. There the California Transportation Company assembled the two vessels for their regular Sacramento River service between San Francisco and Sacramento, and excursions to Stockton, on the San Joaquin River. At the time, they were the most lavishly appointed and expensive sternwheel passenger boats ever commissioned. Driven out of service by a new highway linking Sacramento with San Francisco in 1940, the two vessels were laid up and then purchased by Isbrandtsen Steamship Lines for service out of New Orleans. During World War II, they were requisitioned by the United States Navy for duty in San Francisco Bay as USS Delta Queen (YHB-7/YFB-56).[5]

Three different United States Presidents have sailed on Delta Queen: Herbert Hoover, Harry Truman, and Jimmy Carter.[6]

In 1946, Delta Queen was purchased by Greene Line of Cincinnati, Ohio and towed via the Panama Canal and the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers to be refurbished in Pittsburgh.[7] On that ocean trip she was piloted by Frederick Way, Jr. In 1948 she entered regular passenger service, plying the waters of the Ohio, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Cumberland Rivers between Cincinnati, New Orleans, St. Paul, Chattanooga, Nashville, and ports in between. Ownership of the vessel has changed seven times over the last fifty years.[8]

In 1966, Congress passed the first Safety at Sea Law that would put the Delta Queen out of business. After consulting with attorney William Kohler, Richard Simonton, Bill Muster, and Jay Quinby traveled to Washington, DC, to save their boat. As chairman of the board of Greene Line Steamers, Jay Quinby testified before the Senate to ask for an exemption to the law.[9] Greene Line had to renegotiate the exemption every two to four years. The boat's Betty Blake Lounge is named in honor of the woman who rose from public relations officer to savior of the boat when Congressman Garmatz tried to block the 1970 exemption.[10]

Thanks to the efforts of Betty Blake and Bill Muster, the Delta Queen was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1970 and was subsequently declared a National Historic Landmark in 1989.[2][11]

One unusual feature of Delta Queen is her steam calliope, mounted on the Texas deck aft of the pilot house. It covers approximately three octaves, and was used to play the ship in and out of her berth while she was docking and undocking. The Master of the Delta Queen sometimes extended this courtesy to other vessels as well.

Current duty[edit]



The Delta Queen at the start of the 2004 Great Steamboat Race
The vessel was most recently operated by Majestic America Line.[12] The vessels were purchased from the Delaware North Companies in April 2006. Besides Delta Queen, the company also owns the American Queen and Mississippi Queen, modern steamboats designed along Delta Queen's lines but carrying around 400 passengers. The company also owns riverboats that have seen service on the Columbia and Snake Rivers in Oregon and Washington, and the Alaska Inside Passage.

Delta Queen cruised the Mississippi River and its tributaries on a regular schedule, with cruises ranging from New Orleans to Memphis to St. Louis to St. Paul to Cincinnati to Pittsburgh, and many more. In some cruises, the vessel probed rivers such as the Arkansas, Red, Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway, Black Warrior, Mobile, and more.



Delta Queen preparing to disembark from Paducah, Kentucky on October 6, 2007.
Delta Queen recreated historic steamboat races each year during the Kentucky Derby Festival, when she raced with the Belle of Louisville on the Ohio at Louisville in the Great Steamboat Race. The winner of the annual race received a trophy of golden antlers, which was mounted on the pilot house until the next race. They also raced during the Tall Stacks festivals celebrating steamboats, held every three or four years in Cincinnati (Delta Queen's former home port).

On August 1, 2007, Majestic America Line announced that Delta Queen would cease operations permanently at the end of the 2008 season. The temporary exemption from SOLAS needed to keep Delta Queen running was being ended by Congress.

In response to this announcement, in September 2007 the MSP for Dumbarton, Jackie Baillie, backed by 15 other Members, submitted a motion to the Scottish Parliament calling for the preservation of the ship.[13]

In the United States, devotees of the boat created a renewed "Save the Delta Queen" campaign similar to the one undertaken in the 1970s.

However, at the end of the 2008 season, Delta Queen ceased all service. On her official website,[12] the Majestic America Line announced it is ending all operations, would not operate in 2009, and that its assets, including all its riverboats, are for sale.

On February 11, 2009, Delta Queen arrived in Chattanooga, Tennessee to become a floating boutique hotel, as it was feared the vessel could be vandalized if she remained in New Orleans.[6] Under lease to Chattanooga businessman Harry Phillips, she's now docked at Coolidge Park Landing on Chattanooga's North Shore. The Delta Queen Hotel officially opened for overnight guests on June 5, 2009, offering dining, a lounge, live period music and theatrical performances.

The ship is currently owned by Ambassadors International,[14] and is leased and operated by a company called All Aboard Travel, operating as Delta Queen LLC, which began leasing the vessel in August 2010.[15][16] Ambassadors International listed the ship for sale beginning in late 2008 at a price of $4.75 million,[16] and in November 2010 it was announced that a group called Save the Delta Queen 2010 was planning to place a bid to purchase the ship.[14] If it succeeded, the group would place the ship into operation, carrying only 49 people in order to be exempt from federal fire safety regulations, which apply to ships carrying upwards of 50 people.[14]

For a time, with the steamer American Queen turned over to MARAD and Mississippi Queen sold for scrap below New Orleans, Delta Queen was the only steamboat to have been owned by the Delta Queen Steamboat Company (formerly Greene Line Steamers) to remain in service, albeit without running trips. However, as of November 2011, the Great American Steamboat Company of Memphis, Tennessee was booking cruises on American Queen along the Upper and Lower Mississippi river.

On May 14, 2013, the bill To amend title 46, United States Code, to extend the exemption from the fire-retardant materials construction requirement for vessels operating within the Boundary Line (H.R. 1961; 113th Congress) was introduced into the United States House of Representatives by Rep. Steve Chabot (R, OH-1).[17] The bill, if passed, would again extend the exemption to 46 U.S.C. § 3503, the provision of law that prevents the Delta Queen from sailing with 50 or more overnight passengers.[18]

Ichi,  I've gotta dig something out to show you.
It's called a "set joint".  It's a gambler's cheater table.
It's a small square table with felt and a wooden spinner on it.
And the spinner is sorta like a really crude roulette wheel in that you bet on where it will stop spinning.
BUT,  the set joint is rigged.  There's a brake on the spinner controlled by a lever you push on the side of the table.

Here's the cool part.  It was used on that gambling riverboat that was anchored at Innerarity Point before I was born.  Do you know about that boat?

My biggest adventure was when we built the tug CREVE COEUR
Built in 1999, by Patti Shipyard of Pensacola, Florida (hull #476) as the Creve Coeur for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Vessel Name: CREVE COEUR
Vessel Service: TOWING VESSEL
Trade Indicator: Coastwise Unrestricted
Hull Material: STEEL
Hull Number: 476
Ship Builder: PATTI SHIPYARD
Year Built: 1999
Owner:
U.S. ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS

Myself and 2 other guys took it up to Peoria Il. Took 11 days. With just 3 guys it was a lot of work. I could write a book about that adventure. If you are interested i will high light the trip one day. It was scary as hell meeting tug/barges on the Black Warrior at night in the rain. LOL

Mr Ichi wrote:My biggest adventure was when we built the tug CREVE COEUR
Built in 1999, by Patti Shipyard of Pensacola, Florida (hull #476) as the Creve Coeur for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Vessel Name: CREVE COEUR
Vessel Service: TOWING VESSEL
Trade Indicator: Coastwise Unrestricted
Hull Material: STEEL
Hull Number: 476
Ship Builder: PATTI SHIPYARD
Year Built: 1999
Owner:
U.S. ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS

Myself and 2 other guys took it up to Peoria Il.  Took 11 days.  With just 3 guys it was a lot of work.  I could write a book about that adventure. If you are interested i will high light the trip one day.  It was scary as hell meeting tug/barges on the Black Warrior at night in the rain.  LOL

I wish you'd write a book about your days working with Frank Patti.
When we took that walk downtown and you started telling me about it, it was a history lesson but it was also a glimpse into a way of life I know nothing about.

Mr Ichi wrote:I heard rumors and stories but nothing first hand. Back then that was pretty wild land.  Wood bridge across the intracoastal to get to  Gulf Beach.  Lot of crazy things used to happen so it is more that possible.[/b]

Oh it was more than just rumor,  it definitely was there.  But it's before both your and my time.  It was an old riverboat that was docked there to mainly run afoul of the law.  Definitely gambling but probably all other vices.
It's a lot like Kupfrian Park which is another really cool part of our local history.  We know it existed like Kupfrian did but the history on both has never really been told.

Mr Ichi wrote:One night we were running and I was driving or piloting what ever you call it, I needed something to drink so I wedged the wheel house door open with a stick and ran down to get a drink.  River was wide and and empty.  Wind blew the door closed and someone had bumped the inside lock on the door. Damn!!!  We were chugging on down the river and I was locked out.  Keys were inside the locked wheelhouse!!!  After a round of OH Shits, someone remembered the extra set of keys were in the galley.  Close call.  One of many LOl

No wonder you quit drinking. That would do it for anybody. lol

Our own Captain Hazelwood.......

I have been on the Peoria boat also.

2seaoat wrote:

I love the new Iowa casinos......I have done well in their poker rooms, not so good on their carnival games.

By carnival games are you referring to all the other gaming in the casino?

To get back home we rented a Lincoln. It was real nice car and would cruise at 90 to 100 with no effort. I was driving and was just out side of Louisville. I was running 90 to 95. I saw a set of lights gaining on me in the rearview mirror. I thought "Oh shit I am caught" But the lights were bouncing too much for a cop car .so I bumped it to a 100 and just held it there. Lights still coming on. Damn!! WTF? It a few minutes it was very close. It was a damn tractor trailer!!! A KW. I tried to run with him but he was soon out of sight. I have never seen a truck run that fast. I backed it down to 90. I call Louisville the "Home of the worlds fastest truck". LOL.

This boat was built to carry the rocket boosters to Cape Canaveral. Sometimes the would dock it at the Port and we would due contract maintenance on it. Good guys. Got to know most of the crew prety well. Damn sure got their ass in bind. We did not build it, too big for us.



Posted: Jan 04, 2013 1:59 PM CST
Updated: Jan 18, 2013 1:59 PM CST


Viewers flock to see damaged bridge
Ship commander says navigation lights main cause
KY to seek federal help in Eggner's Ferry Bridge repair
BENTON, KY (WSMV) -
The state of Kentucky wants more than $7 million from a shipping company after an accident that destroyed part of a bridge last year.

The state is filing for damages against Foss Maritime, which owns the Delta Mariner ship that hit a section of the Eggner's Ferry Bridge, causing it to collapse into the Tennessee River.

The company says it isn't responsible for the collapse because some of the lights on the bridge were not working.

Kentucky officials said the money will pay for the emergency repairs made to the bridge.

They said the ship ignored warnings from other vessels and the Coast Guard about conditions that night.

Copyright 2013 WSMV (Meredith Corporation). All rights reserved.

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