New Queen of the Mississippi video

??Calliope

You've got better eyes than I - I didn't see any calliope. At 40 seconds however, they show Doc's Captain's hat from the NATCHEZ and the boat model that was given to crew members on the NATCHEZ' 25th anniversary. These are in the Louisiana State Museum in the Cabildo.

At 1:08 you see a close up of the wheel and its very clear there is no hydraulic pump motor attached to the shaft, and judging by the shaft bearing I would be very surprised if that wheel does anything more than free roll in the wake as it doesn't appear to be built to withstand much pushing force at all.

I've seen her up close. The wheel is indeed hooked up. It is driven by a pump from the port side of the wheel only. The starboard side is simply a bearing. It's for looks only and not much for thrust. It actually doesn't look toooooooo bad when in motion....All things considered.

Judy Patsch;30497 wrote: You've got better eyes than I - I didn't see any calliope. At 40 seconds however, they show Doc's Captain's hat from the NATCHEZ and the boat model that was given to crew members on the NATCHEZ' 25th anniversary. These are in the Louisiana State Museum in the Cabildo.

It's the same one that Queen of the West has but maybe it might sound a little better.

Calliope???

I never saw it. Maybe it is hidden by the putting green. Nothing more to say on this.

I missed it too. What I didn't miss was the "fully functioning paddlewheel" remark. Might that be just a tad misleading? I even missed the putting green, but, as Ed Frazier put it, nothing more to say.

Well, if the QUEEN OF THE MISSISSIPPI people think that a putting green up on their boat's roof is something new, they are wrong! Fred Way installed some sort of a miniture golf lay out up on the BETSY ANN's roof while she was running in the Pittsburgh-Louisville tourist trade.

Steamboat Handicap

Does this attest to the fact that riverboats are very stable? Does one have to make adjustments for the almost imperceptible motions? Is one at an advantage by knowing these movements? And then there is the sheer and camber, at least of the older boats. I'm assuming the QOTM is dead level flat. Fred Way must have been amused.

If so, how about a pool table......nah. Maybe not. :O)

Well, I have finally seen the video and that "calliope" people speak of is not a true calliope at all. It is an electric keyboard with fake 'whistles' attached to a box on roller wheels with an amplifier. According to the definition of a calliope, it is "a musical instrument consisting of a series of tunable whistles played by means of steam or compressed air". I also find it interesting how this news report blatantly say she has "modern Z-drive propulsion" and don't even elude to the wheel being real or for that matter even functional. I am sure people will ride her, as ACL has some very dedicated repeat customers. However, I have to wonder what her longevity will be when the REAL thing is out there. I fear this boat will be the proverbial white elephant for ACL in the short term. Once their regular dedicated passengers have ridden all her itineraries, I think she will be fighting for passengers and VERY heavy discounts will be offered in an attempt to fill her decks. After that...well, perhaps she will go the way of their last attempt on the Mississippi, the ill-fated NEW ORLEANS. I just hope their company doesn't end up doing the same as they did in the early 90's. No one would wish that on anyone!

Paul...Some Royal Carribean Cruise Line ships have pool tables. I believe the table top is on gimbles, much like a ships compass. I've never played since it's about $4.00 a rack and I would much rather spend my money on a beer than humiliate myself at pool.

Jimmy: Tell me about JIM'S DREAM. What is she up to?? Cap'n Walnut

Topic Drift - Pool Tables

I have seen the floating pool tables on Royal Carbbean. They are an eerie sight when no one is playing. They are lined up with the tops "floating" as the ship moves - like something from Haunted Mansion.

Wesley

It's the bowling alleys on the S.S. FRANCE (S.S. NORWAY) that I would loved to have seen during her hayday.

Tom..JIM'S DREAM is doing well. Chief Howe, myself, and some other friends had a delightful cruise Monday afternoon. It was perfect out on the river...sun was warm but the breeze cool. Even saw a couple of eagles and wild turkeys..and no not the drinking kind.
Kentucky is going to reopen the Ky. River locks 1 through 4, from Carollton to Frankfort; perhaps another rumble on the river next summer????????

Jimmy: Kentucky River?? Just gimme the word, boss! Gimme the word! Got anything going September 29??? Cap'n Walnut.

Perhaps we could get Shipyard Sam with his new sternwheeler interested in joining us, that is if the Rabbit Hash Shipyard isn't working that day.

Jimmy: Don't think the R/H shipyard has anything on its ways that will need caulking by September 29! Shipyard mostly works on bottoms, methinks. My problem is I donno how to contact him. The Phoney number I got has been disconnected. Preston Claytor has moved out of Louisville but his steamboat, POCAHONTAS is still there. He tells me he will be in town on several dates but September 29 is the only one I can make. Your thoughts??? Cap'n Walnut

What'll they think of next?

Mark Twain mentioned something about a pool (or billiards) table that would increase the challenge by being uneven, but I don't think it was ever tried. The gimbled tables on a rough sea? Now that would be a sight to behold.

Hey Cap,
Sept. 29 sounds good to me. Need a steersman?

Travis, no offense, as you know how much I love the real steamboat experience, but:

I think we have to accept and respect that we, the "steamboat buffs", are a rare kind of animal and there are many other people out ther who - unbelievably - do not care too much about really authentic steamboats and for them it's good enough if there is "some kind of" a paddlewheel, "some kind of" a calliope etc.

It's just a different kind of business model and a different audience. People not thinking like us are not automatically stupid and rare - actually they're by far the majority, thy have, very obviously, a lot of money and it's neither bad nor illegal not to be a steamboat buff 😉

What I want to say is: Let's be a bit more fair to the QotM and ACL - they're doing their business and they're pretty experienced in what they do in their market (not like Delaware North of MAL, who simply didn't know what they were doing back then). Let's not call everything they do "bad" or "forseeably unsuccessful" just because we'd love to get back the good old Delta Queen Steamboat Business from 30 years ago.

If a cruise line prefers to send out e-mail newsletters and call their customers on their mobile phones directly, this just might be the more effective way of marketing than "ballyhooing" on the river front of St. Louis ... It's just their way of doing business (successfully for many years now) and not bad just because Capt. Wagner and Betty Blake did it differently 30 years ago.

Okay, now grill me for what I've written, but this is my opinion - we love the good old times but at the same time we also should respect the business of a cruise line (remember, they're doing modern cruise business, not 19th century tramping along the rivers) that does thing differently because they found out that it works for them very well this way.

Franz

Franz: I agree but it seems that the hotel side of the business has had too much say at the expense of the navigation side. Making a boat look like a shoe-box with an egg-beater behind does not inspire confidence in the sea-worthyness of the boat which you are going to trust with your life and that of your family. There are plenty of boats around the world that inspire any of us to admiration that don't have paddle wheels or calliopes. They are ships or boats that carry passengers; not hotels that have been somehow made to float. That having been said, yes, we do need to encourage any legitimate safe overnight river transport. I can even make a big case that the DQ was not, is not and was never intended to be a traditional Western Rivers steamboat as Hunter defined it but we loved it nontheless. Greene spent a lot of money at Dravo to try to make it look like one. Likewise, the MQ was even worse but lots of folks developed a real affection for it. Sigh, the irony is that we ARE picky and seem to take more than a little pride in it. Cap'n Walnut.

Tom: I totally agree!

It's just a different kind of view a modern cruise line has on cruise ships/boats. And us steamboat buffs, who care about the look, the smell and the sound of a steamboat is a very small minority amoungst the potential cruise line customers (which in these days are being called "guests", not "passengers", which tells a lot, too: priority is hotel, not navigation).

Look at the ocean going vessels: There is almost no beautiful looking ship around anymore, especially not the new-builds and when you look at ships like the Norwegian Epic or the Oasis of the Seas - do they look seaworthy to you? (of course they are, but they don't like like that). And many people love them, they don't care how they look like as long as the booze is cheap and they're going to the Bahamas ...

Sad, but true. And I don't want to blame the cruise lines, ocean or river, for just following where their customers go and where the money is ...

So basically the 'problem' is: those of us who cherish the true steamboating aspects don't have the money to ride at today's rates, and those who do have the $$$$$ want the bathrobes and other hotel amenities. So, bathrobes and hotel it is. This should point out the value of our various historical organizations where we can keep the steamboating fires burning since we can't do it on board any more.... one interesting aside: if you look at a recent AQ Facebook question about the 'guest's' favorite part of the trip, most of the posters said it was the calliope! Kind of like the Streckfus dilemma when they brought out the streamlined PRESIDENT sans calliope. There was such a commotion about it being missing, they put the CAPITOL's on in 1939 after she was dismantled. Unfortunately there aren't enough of us paying our way anymore to be that influential.