Midnight arrival of the QUEEN OF THE MISSISSIPPI

QoM by night

Two closeups of the port side.

1954 all over again, and I was camera-less

I fibbed a bit in my report of the midnight arrival - I wasn't the only person there. 3 men and an industrial truck were awaiting the boat at the stern end. I assumed there was some mechanical issue to attend to, and when I dropped by at noon to check on the departure, I came face to face with the problem. There taking up most of the length of a flatbed was an entire propellor unit, and I didn't have my camera with me! They had some problems with one of their units so rather than repair it they brought in a whole new unit to replace it. They are aiming for a 4 PM departure.
This is reminiscent of the Rock Island levee scene in September 1954, when a truck brought in the cylinder unit from the DELTA KING to replace the run-through one on the DELTA QUEEN.
Some things change, some things stay the same...

10PM and no lockage? Evidently QOTM is spending a second night in Davenport?

Lock site down

She left at 4:30 and was through 15 by 5. The lock site hadn't updated since 6:45AM when I looked last night.

Daylight pictures

Here are some shots taken at 4PM at Oneida St.
Note the closeup of the stage connection which we had been discussing earlier.

Business end

Here's a closeup of the paddlewheel connection.
The bunting looks red, gray and blue but I think the comment earlier about the stern being dirty with exhaust is a result of actual exhaust and shadows. It didn't look that bad up close, but underway the whole stern appeared gray.

Underway!

And finally some shots underway. It was good to see action on the river again, but I have to admit I didn't feel any great attachment to this boat. 5 days from now the STEAMboating season resumes up here on the UMR. Now that has me excited!

Continuing over to the lock

Oneida St. is directly across from the upper guidewall of L&D 15, so it was a mere upriver stretch to get the angle and then on into the main chamber.

My God! That thing sure heels over in a turn, doesn't it? It looked top heavy in pictures...now I know it IS! I would hate to be on that thing in Lake Pepin in a wind-bearing thunderstorm. Talk about a scary ride. I can imagine she bobs around like a cork in a bath tub in the wind. For sure this thing is a fair weather boat only! Keep your life jacket handy at all times aboard her!

Travis, we were on the Queen of the Mississippi's third trip at the time Hurricane Isaac decided to travel up the Mississippi River. It was very windy with driving rain but I felt no unusual motion or "bobbing" and only knew it was storming by looking out the windows or hearing a clap of thunder. We felt no fear or need to have our life jackets handy and kept them stored as we have on the American Queen, Delta Queen, Queen of the Mississippi, Queen of the West, Empress of the North and the Columbia Queen.

Corps website up again, QoM on schedule

To clarify a couple of postings regarding where the QoM was in the lock system: the day she was here in Davenport the Corps website was down after 6:45AM. If you didn't notice the last refreshed time, you thought the boat had remained here an unseemly amount of time. It didn't. It left here about 4:30PM and was locked through by 5:15PM and proceeded on downriver. I see that she has just cleared L&D 22, which means she was in Hannibal this morning on schedule. So it was the locks website which was down, not the QoM...

Smokestacks?

I know that they're not that big, but in looking at these photos I have to ask "where are the smokestacks"? Do they retract or lay down? I looked at my photos from the a few weeks ago and there are smokestacks on it then.

Good question

Good question. I didn't notice any, nor can I see them in my pix. If she's got some, they were undoubtedly down to clear wires over the lock and bridge area.

She does have a set of stacks, and they do indeed lay down on the roof. Here's a video of her docked in Burlintong, IA. If you look closely, you can see the crowns above the 3rd window back from the pilothouse: Steamboat Entering Burlington IA Harbor 9-3-2012 - YouTube

Super vision

Thanks. Your young eyes could spot something 1500 miles away I couldn't see from a couple hundred feet!

Looks like a floating committee job to me: no sheer, no style. Just a big box on a raft. The stern wheel looks like an afterthought. Ho Hum.

As do the stacks, Jim. I hate when designers put things on because they think they "ought" to be there, then put them in an obvious wrong spot! 99% of folks won't notice, but it certainly grates on the nerves of those of us who do! An example is the new bridge over McAlpine Lock in Louisville: it is a box girder bridge, but someone decided to add a "suspension" effect. The towers for the "suspension cables" are midway between the functional piers. If it were really a suspension bridge it would be destined to fail before construction was even completed. I know most don't notice stuff like that, but I do (and I bet you do, too!).

Thanks Bob, I hadn't noticed and now everytime I drive down I-64 passing the locks I'm going to see it! 😛

The lack of sheer was the first thing I noticed. Flat and easy to build, but no charm. Sternwheelers without sheer look "Odd" (to me). And when are they going to hook-up the hydraulics on that paddlewheel? They made a big fuss in their advertising about how this was an authentic, functional, paddlewheeler. So far it's just dead-weight, and not very attractive as such.

Oh well, I guess it will make a good casino boat someday...

The photos sure show me one thing--it's ugly; at least IMHO. Way too square.
S'
DAvid D.

Those little things really annoy me. If you look at other boats (like Belle of Louisville) you can tell that they're in a different place then the QoM. Besides, those short little stacks are really hard to spot, aren't they?