German Mississippi Queen

Mr. Jones,

I believe she was designed by our own Alan Bates. There is a large lift that brings the "Alan Bates Buffet" up from the galley one deck below. I believe she also has a retracable pilothouse and stacks for the low bridges. Maybe Alan will chime in -- my memory on this one is foggy.

There are some more pictures from this boat on our German website schaufelraddampfer.de: http://www.schaufelraddampfer.de/pages/deutschland/elbe--hamburg.php

Some technical details: sternwheeler, built in 1987 (Werft De Hoop - Lobith, Holland), 2 x 500 PS (Deutz MWM, Diesel), lenght 62,00 m, width 11,40 m, 550 passengers, harbour round trips, special and charter cruises from Ueberseebrücke (St. Pauli – Landungsbrücken) (owner: Schiffahrtsgesellschaft Mississippi Queen GmbH + Co. KG, Hamburg).

And there is a lenghty blog entry from the "pictures of the week" about the Mississippi Queen in Hamburg, Germany, with comments from Alan Bates about the boat: http://www.steamboats.org/weblogs/archives/63-The-MISSISSIPPI-QUEEN-of-Hamburg,-Germany.html

See Franz's URLs for my comments.

A year or two after the Mississippi Queen was completed we went to Germany and Holland. The boat was not at Arnhem, but at Dusseldorf, in Germany, so we went to her. Wouldn't you know! They had just finished repainting the main deck and there would be no trips. We did get to go aboard and look around. It was a keen disappointment that she did not run that day.

It is a pretty poor copy. It's currently HQ'd out of Nuremberg. It's used on and off as disco and (I'm told by the locals a strip club) here on the Main Donau Canal. If anybody needs any specifics, I ride my bike past it all the time and can go ask aboard.

--drew

I went today and took some photos of the boat. I'll try to get them loaded into the system tonight. Either the boat has undergone some extensive reworking since the original photo was taken, or this is a different vessel entirely.

The one here in Nuremberg is no longer a paddle-wheeler. She has a shape resembling a boat that was a side-wheeler but had the wheel removed. I believe by the looks of everything that she is powered -- I would guess propeller driven as there are two exhausts at the rear of the roof that are the right size and look.

She's safely moored and has signage for a Nightclub with two restaurants. Everything looks really out of use and there was no answer on the buzzer at the main doors. According to the posted (yet very sun-faded menu) it's open every Wednesday through Sunday evening. I'm kind of doubting it, but I'll take a ride out there Wednesday evening to see what I can find.

I'm really thinking the boat is not in use, and if that's the case it looks to be a great opportunity for someone. Short of a few cosmetic corrections it needs to be more accurate (mainly just the wrong kind of windows) she'd make a great boat.

Current pics

Here is the Mississippi Queen in her current state lying in the Main Donau Canal at the port of Nuremberg.

Don't mix up the two MISSISSIPPI QUEENs we do have in Germany! One is in Hamburg (see original posting), the other one is in Nuernberg, the latter being the one in the pictures Drew posted. The Hamburg MQ is the one Alan Bates wass involved in and it's a wonderful sternwheeler doing harbor cruises ( http://www.schaufelraddampfer.de/pages/deutschland/elbe--hamburg.php ). The Nuernberg MQ ( http://www.schaufelraddampfer.de/pages/deutschland/rhein-main-donau-kanal.php ) indeed is quite cheesy - but at least they probably have the best Cajun food I had in Germany every (that's at least at the time we've been there about 2 years ago). THere were plans to replace her with a new boat so I don't know whether the one I have seen then is still there.

Franz

Please elaborate on the LOUISIANA STAR, a most enchanting sternwheeler. It's the only one I have ever seen without a splashboard protecting the maindeck from flying debris projected by the paddlewheel.

I once heard that the German rivers do not have the driftwood that rivers on this side of the Pond are chocked with in times of high water. The reason being, my informant said, was that "Foresters" kept the forest floors free of wood debris. Any truth to that?

The LS would not have that expansive glass window on the tail-end of the 1st deck for long on our drift infested rivers, but what a lovely boat. And is that a three-chime Crosby whisle on the roof?

I would say that your friend probably wasn't exaggerating. They are a bit on the anal side about forestry here with very little being left behind. Mainly though, I would say it's because the forestry areas are usually away from the main waterways. Keep in mind that what most Germans refer to as a river we would call a bayou in the US. The actual river traffic is almost entirely on controlled waterways -- either canals or heavily modified rivers with clean banks, straightened passages and locks occasionally.

Interesting to know there are the two boats...

Is the LOUISIANA STAR a true sternwheeler? It looks as if the wheel can be raised out of the water, a la MISSISSIPPI BELLE. Also, the bucket boards are on backwards!

Am I missing something?

Where is this vessel listed? I can't find mention of it in the previous posts.

Just in short as my Internet access here is very limited: The Louisiana Star has a paddlewheel that's only decortation and is being lifted almost completely out of the water when cruising, though it turns very fast to throw up as much water as possible - looks rather unreal.

But it has a steam whistle and a small boiler; the whistle is being blown with a mixture of steam and pressurized air, making a very nice sound.

You caon find a link to the Louisiana Star on the same page as the link to the Hamburg MQ given in my earlier posting.

Franz