DQ - 2007 Season Is Officially Over

Thanks Ted.

I've wondered why the Company does such an abbreviated schedule lately. I suspect it is because they can't fill the boat in the colder months, but Deb and I always used to take a DQ NOLA roundtrip in mid March and the ol' gal seemed full enough then, and we've been told the Christmas/New Years trips were always popular. And when the company has some big ticket fixed monthly fees, like insurance and dockage and office staff, I would suspect a 3/4 full boat would cover that stuff PLUS fuel and food and crew payroll, but what do I know... With the boat snuggled next to the MQ its bringing in zilch. Does anybody know? Deb and I really, really will miss the March DQ cruise, and yes WE DO KNOW that the AQ cruises in March...PHHHTTT to that.

Ok, I also have some engineer/logistics questions about "layup":

1. Does the engineering staff let the boat go cold and powerless? Or is shore power used and fingers are crossed that NOLA doesn't go below freezing for extended periods of time? I assume the boat can never go powerless...pumps and all that stuff...

2. Are water tanks drained? Stateroom piping drained?

3. Are fuel tanks drained, or is 5 months not considered long enough for fuel oil to go bad? Or do they let the fuel go real low now and fill with fresh before bringing her back alive in the spring?

4. Does anybody exercise the generators during layup? Or are generators run 24/7 to keep lights and pumps going?

5. Is the boat physically locked? probably a silly question...if not, and I suspect not, how is the boat secured?

6. If the two #6 boilers are down how do they keep the stack dry when it rains. Or, do the generators also exhaust through the stack?

Anybody know? Some of these questions may be sensitive I realize, so you can email me. I suspect you know I will be discrete:

[email protected]

Bruno, I would suspect that what MAL will do and what they should do, are two different things. I expect that Chief Dennis and the former Engineering people would have the correct answers to all your questions, because they did it the right way, and have kept her running for all these years.

Supposedly the long lay-up this year was for them to completely re-do the DELTA QUEEN, as they said they planned to keep her running indefinitely and she would be totally re-furbished. I doubt that now they will put any money into her, as they have no use for her any more. Since they have her booked at very high prices next year, it would be smart for them to see that she's maintained properly so she can make all her planned trips in 2008 - otherwise any profit they can make will be spent on things like re-imbursing passengers and the related expenses for not being able to stay on schedule. They need to get the union people back, who know how to keep the old gal running - I doubt if it was cost effective this year to have less experienced crew on both the DQ and EMPRESS, in view of the mishaps they experienced.

I can't really answer all of these question, but I have been through a few layups, and let me tell you, it ain't no fun. When I was there, the boat was cold and dead (meaning no fire in the boilers. Also meaning that New Orleans can be the coldest place on earth in winter. This is a phenomonon as it seldom freezes in the Crescent City. But if the wind is coming across Lake Pontchartrain and it is about 45 degrees and you are having to work in it all day, it might as well be 20 below.) The boat was usually on shore power and in a shipyard where they worked 24/7. That would not be the case if she is at a dock, except there is probably some shore power and hopefully a watchman or two. If I had an investment like the DQ and it being in New Orleans, I would hire some of the meanest well-armed guards and their dogs to keep an eye on things. If you are working in a shipyard, you have to get by a gate and a nice looking gentleman who knows if you have any business there. I sometimes went to the shipyard at night to work on some signs, and this shipyard was not exactly in the best part of town, but I never had any trouble. I think they let me park IN the yard and in a well-lit area. The boat was covered up with hoses and wires and welding leads and cardboard on the carpets. There are all these strange people with tools and hard hats and they don't like their jobs because they are constantly griping and cussing, even though they are getting paid 10 times as much as I am. But then they don't ever get to leave that dockside hell, and I do.

Not a Critter Was Stirring

Eons ago when the DELTA QUEEN laid up in Cincinnati at the end of the season, and after the crew were all safely ashore, the Chief Engineer would get the interior of the boat as hot as he could make it with all the steam radiators revved-up full-blast. While an exterminating company would be sealing up every crack and pore until the QUEEN was virtually air-tight.

At the peak of perfection, the boilers would be banked, and after the Chief and the Fireman were also off the boat, the exterminators "bombed" the innards of the steamboat with deadly cyanide gas and let it do its lethal work for several days before they returned and aired out the boat. Not a creature was stirring after the treatment and the boat was totally vermin free.

If they did that in New Orleans, they would have a bumper crop of dead vermin. What did they do about the dead critters that would have begun to stink? Ew.

Creepy Crawlers

Only cockroaches and flies died on the Cincy landing, but in new Orleans? That would have been, as Chief Cal was fond of saying, "Another Catagory".

After the practice of inducing the cyanide gas was discontinued, there was a pronounced increase in the population of creepy-crawlers. My doubts are whether such a practice would even practiced today due to environmental and liability issues, but it was most effective in fumigating the vessel and was always a beginning step of the lay-up procedures of those days .

Hi, steamboating colleagues:
This thread is most interesting RE: 'DQ - 2007 Season Officially Over.' Insights and bits of information new to most and pertinent. When John Burns, son of old Jim who built the DK/DQ, stayed with us here years back he mentioned the times he worked under his dad as a fireman and boiler tender on the 'California Transportation Co.' boats on the Sacramento. He didn't mention laying up the DK or DQ, but said that when they had to get them up and running, as in the case of the long strike in the 1930s, there were, in his words, "Some 125 steps we had to follow consecutively to get the boats up from dead cold to just roll their wheels." I wasn't sure if he was pulling my leg at the time or not.

Shipyard, do you remember the extermination company here in Cincinnati [Won't name it here] who drove their white/green/orange painted trucks around with those big plastic rats and roaches mounted on the top? One time during the old wharfboat days the DQ was preparing to depart. Passengers were parking their cars on the whaftboat, luggage being taken over and all in a jolly mood. The exterminator man came down in the one truck with the big, nasty rat mounted on the roof for a casual visit and parked back where they were busy loading in all of the food stores, bread milk, fruits, vegetables. Letha Greene looked out and nearly had a fit ordering him to move the truck, but later came to laugh much about it.

Fred Way used to reluctantly discuss "vermin issue" on the old steamboats metioning how in cases of roaches, bed bugs, ticks, lice etc. the crew would run a steam line over the deck to steam our the nooks, crannies, bed springs in cabins etc.

Cheers,
Dale Flick

The boat was fumigated in 1978 while I was on there. They did not put a "bag" over the entire boat, but sealed everything up pretty well. After 48 hours when we opened her up, there were plenty of roaches and other insects, but no rats. I can truthfully and thankfully say I never saw a rat on the DELTA QUEEN.

As to the other questions about lay-up, Lexuie has hit the nail on the head about New Orleans being COLD! The boat is dead. Shore power, no generators are run at all. Boilers are opened up for repair. water lines drained. One time, they ran an external steam line to the boat for some heat and a fe other things...it didn't work very well.

The part about the rats sure confuses me. I spent 15 years sailing out of Robin St. Wharf, where there were plenty of rats the size of cats... but never ever saw one onboard any vessel... and no rat guards on the lines. Of course, seems the rats could just jump on from the wharf.

The MQ was doing their own spraying throughout the season for roaches and controlled them effectively. Later Orkin took mover and I rarely if ever saw any roaches... anothyer surprise considering NOLA and the area.

CDC/ PHS requires a very fancy and complicated Integrated Pest mangement system, which is closely adhered to on the Empress... but I really think "normal" extermination program would be equally effective.

Any ideas why no rats boarding in NOLA?

Keith Tinnin;8773 wrote:

Any ideas why no rats boarding in NOLA?

Keith,

Great straight line. Bud Abbot would be proud. Can't wait to read the punch lines. Go ahead jazzou, you first.

:O)

Paul

LOL-funny. How about- they boarded in Memphis with Elvis.