How does the DQ stir up so much water

Paddlewheel design is a real science. Diameter of the wheel and dip are of supreme importance in how much water a wheel carries. On a boat such as the JULIA BELLE SWAIN with a large diameter wheel and rather shallow dip, there is not much water carried up; most goes aft. That wheel was built primarily for speed. A sternwheel towboat's wheel is more suited to pushing and backing power, and so has a deeper dip and carries more water.

In the pic of the DQ that you posted, she had her original hull, and was drawing about 9 feet, and the dip was a good bit deeper than the circles (that is, deeper than the width of the buckets). Her original design draft had been on the order of 6 1/2 to 7 feet, with a wheel dip of about 18 inches, so that the buckets were just submerged. Over the years, with added weight and equipment, etc., her draft increased, and so did the wheel dip. The chief reason for the new hull in the 1990's was to get the wheel back up out of the water where it should have been. When the DQ was last operating she carried quite a bit less water over the wheel than in this pic. A big "waterfall" from a sternwheel is undoubtedly picturesque, but not very efficient. Hull design also contributes to all of this, but that is getting into more technicality than I think you want.

Both the DELTA KING & DELTA QUEEN had a design flaw from the very beginning, they were both stern heavy. From the start both boats had to keep ballast water in their fore peak tanks in order to try to get their sterns up. Over the years as weight was added to the DQ....air conditioning, larger generators, sewage plants, etc.,etc ...she got more and more stern heavy therefore the paddlewheel became deeper and deeper.

DQ Wheel Dip

Matthew,

I know the "wheel dip" on DQ was discussed here at length with some interesting comments from Capt Bates as I recall. I tried a search with no luck - maybe one of our more expert dot org librarians can be of help.

Wesley

Well, IMHO, the DQ's wheel is still a bit deep, probably caused by the unfortunate settling of the engine room area during the hull refit. That also upset some her beautiful lines (if it weren't for the flexibility of the wooden superstructure, she likely would have split!
But, I'm no marine architect nor engineer! I just notice how low the pitmans are on the bottom of their stroke, and the amount of carry over.
No matter, the important thing is to keep pushing to see that wheel making rollers again!!
S'
David D.

I find this discussion on wheel dynamics fascinating! Talk about wheel dip, If you ever saw an early run of the Mississippi Queen, you know what wheel dip is!

July 25, 1976 was a special day in the life of the MQ. The boat was officially christened at it's home port of Cincinnati, and I caught it several times on it's way into town from Jeffboat for the first time. The boat probably never looked better than it did on this big day, but I couldn't believe the amount of water that the paddlewheel was digging-up! You couldn't even see the wheel! It was a great big frothy popsicle of water going up and over the wheel, and the boat was not going all that fast. This was my first notion that things might not be going very well with this new boat.

My thoughts turned to Captain Wagner who was in charge on this trip. He had a Betty Blake-type gala event awaiting the boat for the ceremony with national media, speech-making, balloon release, and thousands of people. Would the boat make it time? He must have been under a lot of pressure that day...

I'm just glad that the boat didn't blow a cylinder head, or a pitman linkage, or whatever! Thank heaven things got fixed!

-Denny Hamilton-

1.) Below Anderson Ferry, 7/25/76
2.) Same
3.) View from Mt. Echo Park, Cincinnati

Link to Hull and Wheel "dip" discussion...

Please look here for more discussion:

http://www.steamboats.org/forum/river-talk-cruises/1765-question-trim-paddlewheels.htm l"> http://www.steamboats.org/forum/river-talk-cruises/1765-question-trim-paddlewheels.html

Wesley

Wesley/Franz: I am not getting this link to the discussion...mine goes to the steamboats.org main page...

I found it through diligent searching. I'll try to post the 2007 link here: http://www.steamboats.org/forum/river-talk-cruises/1765-question-trim-paddlewheels.html and we'll see if it works. Matthew Cooper, here is everything you ever wanted to know about paddlewheels, their efficiency, etc.

HOUSE DOCUMENTS, Vol. 9, 67th Congress, First Session, April 11 - November 23, 1921.

Alan Bates mentioned in the discussion question about paddlewheels a rare book that studied the efficiency of paddlewheels entitled: "HOUSE DOCUMENTS, Vol. 9, 67th Congress, First Session, April 11 - November 23, 1921."
Since this is a government document and the Tennessee State Library and Archives is a Government Depository I decided to see if we had this document. Our library staff found the book in our collection. It is a government serial and was not catalogued but we have a hardback copy that is in perfect condition. The book has a reference number of 7941. The TSLA web site is:
Tennessee Department of State: Tennessee State Library and Archives
I was just informed by our Government Document expert that she found a digital copy of this book at:
Experimental towboats. . - Full View | HathiTrust Digital Library