Delta Queen Flags

Dan, the American flags were changed as they wore out, and were often repaired in the interim. Various house flags flew over the years, with those being changed at the whim of new owners, new designs, etc. Even some of those house flags were repaired to death, almost, before being retired.

Go back another decade and you may find DQ US flags that were flown for a day, marked as having been flown on the Queen, with, of course, an authentic Certificate of Authentication, re-boxed, and then sold in the Gift Shop.

Ann had lots of pals working on the crew, so she had access to many little treasures such as well-worn, oft-patched flags, and other "goodies" that the average pax did not.

Jackstaff flags

The NATCHEZ uses an old beatup Union Jack flag in bad weather - I can't remember, did you put up an old flag/pennant in bad weather on the DQ?

That is what I thought. Both flags are shredded and full of soot.
We are doing a historic flag display at the Switzerland County Historical Society Museum and we wanted to include these flags. One is signed by Capt Blume (1980) and the other is signed by Capt Davitt (1992). I am sure both flags flew over many thousands of miles of the river.

No. In fact, some of the worst weather I was ever in was with you close by...in Lake Cooper on the Presidential Cruise. We were flying the official Flag of The President of The United States, and it sure took a beating, but did not get tattered. The line snapped, though, and I have a photo of me and Millard _________ (?) (a Coke New York executive) and his wife holding the flag up before I got it put back up.

I have one of those American flags from the DQ, signed by Capt. Wagner and dated 1972, along with the certificate. As shipyard mentioned, they sold them in the gift shop on the DQ and I think the price was $20. Back in "my era" on the DQ, we didn't put any flags up in the morning if the wind was strong and/or it was cruising day and we wouldn't be stopping at any towns. Wind quickly wears out flags and turns them to tatters!

When the Str. BECKY THATCHER was sold away from St. Louis to Marietta in 1975, one of the items remaining aboard from Ruth Ferris' Midship Museum was the last American flag flown on the Str. GOLDEN EAGLE and rescued after the sinking in May, 1947. Well, the new owners of the BECKY enlisted a troop of boy scouts to do some clean up work on the boat, disposing of trash, etc. Those boys spied that old flag, full of soot from the GOLDIE's stacks and immediately decided that it MUST be taken out on the bank and ceremoniously burned! I know that's the proper disposal for a flag and the boys were well intentioned, but THAT ONE was a steamboat artifact that should have been saved!!! By the time somebody "in the know" found out about it, the old flag was long gone.

Herewith is a photo, taken in the museum aboard the BECKY in November, 1970, just after Ruth retired and the room was was being dismantled, with some artifacts already removed, to enlarge the gift shop. The GOLDEN EAGLE flag is visible in the corner beside the rolltop desk that was used by Capt. Donald T. Wright in the offices of The Waterways Journal.

(2) Flag from GOLDEN EAGLE and "R" from stern of RIVER QUEEN, salvaged after 1967 sinking at St. Louis. Also RQ Menu cover & Eagle Packet Co. deck plan.
(3) Stern of RIVER QUEEN when at Bradenton, FL (1950's). The wooden "R" was either the beginning or the end of RIVER!

More flags

My DQ US flag signed by Capt. Jim Blum is hanging on the stairwell up to the main museum rooms... Picture 1 shows the portion of the jack flag from the NATCHEZ, which was my very first NATCHEZ souvenir. Attached to it is a picture of Doc trimming it off on Jan. 1, 1983. The second picture shows the 'wall' of flags which lines the way to the main museum rooms(and partially hides the junk in the attic). From left to right: Jack and roof flags from the PRESIDENT Casino, courtesy of Capt. Joy Manthey; old French, Spanish Castille y Leon, and Louisiana state flags, all from the roof of the NATCHEZ, courtesy of Doc and Capt. Steve Nicoulin.

More flag brag: Thanks to Judy's continuous generosity, I have a jack flag from the PRESIDENT and an American flag from the NATCHEZ -- to go along with the Corps of Engineers flag from the M/V IROQUOIS and another American flag from the DQ.

Virginia Bennett had the largest collection of boat flags I ever saw, including many pennants from towing companies. Over the past decade she has donated many of them to the Golden Eagle River Museum collection (now at Cape Girardeau), the Howard Steamboat Museum, the Point Pleasant River Museum and elsewhere.

No Fair Weather Flags

Sometimes I made my own flags for special occasion, as I am a "flag nut" and love to see 'em flying. I must admit that I cut out the Union of a worn out American flag, or two, and made them into Union Jacks. A grommet kit was an necessary tool to make the the second reinforced hole, and one could be found, either, in my room or in the Mate's Locker.

Who knows: If the Stars are the Union, what are the Stripes called?

By the way, it was my idea, in the spring of '71, to put all those flag poles on the roof of the DQ. In college, I was always on the Color Guard and also had to hoist the colors every morning. One morning as it was raining buckets, I rolled back over in bed instead of going out into the driving rain to raise the flags, when the Colonel called and demanded to know why the flags weren't up.
But Sir, it's storming.
Listen. America is not a fair-weather country. Get 'em up. NOW!

Since then, unless 30-plus mph winds are forecast, I keep my flags flying. That's why they were built. Nothing is prettier than a flag starched-out in a stiff breeze.

My parents & I took our last trip on the DQ back in May 2005, and we were given an American flag by a good friend of ours who was employed on the boat.

I do believe my father has it stored somewhere as he hasn't asked me to sell it on ebay yet!

Pete, wonder who that friend was, personally, I'd rather have the soot stained, storm tatterd steamboat veteran flag, a true honor to posess.... I'll be on the Delta Queen this Friday...

The stripes are the original 13 colonies. But you probably know that.

I was a flag repairer for a while as I had a sewing machine on the boat. Never-the-less, I obtained only one of the ripped up US flags. The rest were fixed and put back in circulation.

It was always amusing to see if the flag of Tennessee would be hung upside down. There was a 50/50 chance that it would. If Bob Reynolds was on board, he would get in a huff if it was wrong, and immediately hang it correctly.

This error could have easily happened to the Texas flag if it was ever hung on the DQ trips to Galveston. but I wasn't there to know. Odds are that it was.

Cap,

To my knowledge (and I made only two of the Galveston cruises) it was hung correctly. Somwewhere I have a picture of it on the fwd mast (kingpost...I guess I am too much of an oldtime steamboater to get that right all the time!).

Travis

Repairing flags

So you were the "Dirty Dotty" of the DQ, Lexie? That's the NOLA lady to whom Doc took the NATCHEZ flags in need of repair. My first souvenir from the NATCHEZ was half a jack flag, and over the years I have acquired, legally, at least one of every flag that flies on the NATCHEZ. They form a hallway in my walkthrough attic, trying to hide the mess behind them!
How long does a flag usually last, if it is flown daily?

A few of the flag collection

1)Good grief. As I was taking the first picture, I realized I had duplicates of most of these flags... not shown is a DQ stern flag, compliments of Capt. Jim Blum. It hangs on the stairs enroute to the attic. As you can see, my attempt to cover up my junk is unsuccessful!
2) my first NATCHEZ souvenir and a picture of Doc cutting it off for me
3) from another thread - here are two of Capt. Lexie's works which I am privileged to own.

I don't know, Judy, the section of flags on the right of that first picture hid that section of attic pretty well. If you hadn't pushed them aside looking for something in that area to show me, I wouldn't have known that space was behind them!

Depends on the wind. I had one on the Graceful Ghost for a couple of years and forgot to take it down as hurricane Rita approached. Was shredded as a result. I put one up here in Colorado and it was done for in no time. The quality of the flag also has bearing on its durability.

Bob Reynolds;17218 wrote: We were flying the official Flag of The President of The United States, and it sure took a beating, but did not get tattered. The line snapped, though, and I have a photo of me and Millard _________ (?) (a Coke New York executive) and his wife holding the flag up before I got it put back up.

Bob,

Somewhere below Lake Pepin on the Saturday morning after we left St. Paul on President Carter's trip, Capt. Fred Martin handed me a plain 9 x 12, unmarked manila envelope with instructions to run the contents up the masthead. Inside was that same Flag of the President of the United States. What I marveled at was that the thing was, to all appearances, hand-painted! I would have thought it would have been embroidered or stitched or something. I snapped several slides of it immediately afterwards, flapping in the breeze before we landed at Wabasha later that day. Unfortunately, all of my 13-plus years of DQ photos are on 35 mm slide film, and I don't have a slide scanner to post a copy of those early morning pictures from that day. One of the more "unromantic" flags that I regularly helped hoist (usually at St. Paul or at Boswell's) was the red fueling flag. If memory serves, that thing wasn't nylon or cotton -- it appeared to me to be made of flannel or some such thicker fabric! My favorite DQ house flag was the old Greene line triangular pennant. I had two of those, one of which had lost it's green tail end. Both of those were donated to the Museum's archives here, along with the blue-and-white ONA pilot wheel house flag and the red-and-yellow DQ house flag from the DQSCo days. While on the subject of flags, the MQ was in Dubuque the day before my Dad passed away in 1995, and Capt. Gabe provided me with a U.S. flag that flew over the boat, which our family placed on Dad's casket at the funeral home, since he was a WWII Navy veteran. We buried that flag with him. Dad's last river trip had been earlier that summer on the MQ, and that flag held special significance for us. Strange how different threads on here bring back memories that have been tucked away for decades!

Indeed, Dave. I have one of the yellow and red DQ house flags here in the room with me, much repaired, with a homemade grommet of sheet metal and screws on the top corner.

I also remember the flannel fueling flag. It seems to me it was knitted, not woven in the traditional manner.

Bob Reynolds;17218 wrote: No. In fact, some of the worst weather I was ever in was with you close by...in Lake Cooper on the Presidential Cruise. We were flying the official Flag of The President of The United States, and it sure took a beating, but did not get tattered. The line snapped, though, and I have a photo of me and Millard _________ (?) (a Coke New York executive) and his wife holding the flag up before I got it put back up.

Well, if that was Charles E.F.Millard you couldn't find anyone any higher up in the Coca Cola Bottling Company of New York; he was the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the aforementioned corporate entity.

Hey Dave I have the ONA flag from the MQ. Its a huge blue flag with the pilot wheel and steamboat embroidered in white.

When I was a watchman on the MQ it was our job to hang flags every morning and in no certain order we hung the flags of all the states we traveled at that time. Louisiana, Miss., Tenn., Ark., KY., Ohio, Ill., Missouri, Iowa, Minn., Wisconsin. We usually hung whatever state we were in that day on the Jackstaff and always had the American Flag on the stern. Thinking back though I dont ever remember a WV flag.

Oh and back in the day when you could get away with harmless pranks I remember the MQ cruising into Natchez one morning with a Skull and Crossbones painted on a Pillow case flying on the Jackstaff.

here is the ONA flag I have