Side-Wheel Steamers in Operation?

Hi Jim,

There are no sidewheel steamboats in operation in the US anymore. The only sidewheel steamboat still in existance is the Ticonderoga in Shelbourne

http://www.shelburnemuseum.com/collections/detail.php?id=8

But she´s on land as part of a museum.

Sidewheel steamboats were quite common in the East of the US (like Hudson river). On the Mississippi river system you were able to find both, sidewheelers and sternwheelers. On the West Coast (Sacramento river and up to Alaska) there were only sternwheelers. There are two more sternwheelers on the West Coast

Portland http://www.oregonmaritimemuseum.org/
Delta King (floating restaurant) http://www.deltaking.com/

and one more in Alaska, the Alaska Queen (former Elisabeth Louise of Sacramento).

The boats you´ve mentioned are sidewheel paddlewheel boats but no steamboats (diesel engines).

There are still lots of sidewheel steamboats in existance but in Europe. Like the 9 steamers of Dresden / Germany ( http://www.saechsische-dampfschiffahrt.de/ ) or 5 steamers on Lake Geneva /Switzerland( http://www.cgn.ch/ plus 3 diesel-electric sidewheelers) or 5 steamers on Lake Lucerne /Switzerland ( http://www.lakelucerne.ch/ ).

There are two historic former sidewheel steamboats on the Mississippi river, one is the former steamer Admiral used as a casino in St. Louis, the other is the former sidewheel steamer President (whereever it is right now). Both have been dieselized and paddlewheels removed.

Carmen

There's also the William M. Black, a former working dredge that is now part of the National Mississippi River Museum and Aqaurium in Dubuque, IA -

http://www.mississippirivermuseum.com/wmblack.htm

If you do go, it's included with admission to the aqaurium and is a self-guided tour. You can walk through the dredge room, engine room, boiler rrom, crew quarters, officer quarters, and bridge. The side wheels have been removed, but you can get a sense of how big they were.

John

John,

You´re right. I totally forgot about the William M. Black and her sister boat, the now USS Nightmare in Newport, KY

http://www.ussnightmare.com/

Carmen

Maybe Bob Reynolds would know if the PRESIDENT is still layed-up at Alton, waiting to be disassembled, hauled inland to St. Elmo, IL, and re-assembled as a hotel...

Yet another sister to the "Black" and the "Mitchell" (aka Nightmare) is the "Captain Meriwether Lewis" in Brownville, NE.

It is, and the Midwest Buffs are going to get to tour it on Friday afternoon of our meeting weekend, thanks to Bette Gorden and its owner, who will be our Saturday night speaker.

Ah, you forgot the Bay Ferry boats, especially the Eureka at the Maritime Museum in SF. Taken out of service when the main crankpin broke, it has since been replaced with something (???) and the boat is relatively intact, with an electric motor that turns over the mechanism for interpretive display. Paddles are even still intact! BTW, she's even wood-hulled.
Also preserved there is the English sidewheel tug, Eppelton Hall, steamed over from England by an intrepid group of preservationists.
Steamcerely,
David Dewey

The TRILLIUM is an operating sidewheel steamboat in Toronto, still carrying passengers for hire. Her schedule is irregular, so it would best to call her owners for her 2007 schedule.

Also in Saginaw, Michigan there is the small walking beam steamer TULE PRINCESS that carries passengers on a charter basis.

Ah yes, I forgot about David Sarlin's Tule Princess. Actually, the Sarlin's sold her many years ago. Used to be in the Napa, CA area, was a frequent visitor to the Delta Steamboat Meet. Wonderful walking beam engine.
S'
David D.

The CHATTANOOGA STAR is a true sidewheeler (diesel) in operation at various places....maybe in Cahttanooga, maybe not! They run all around and I don't know where she is now.

I think there is at least one sidewheel walking-beam steamboat at Disney World in Florida. I know there used to be. Might there also be one at Disneyland in California?

There used to be two sidewheel walking beam steamers at Disney World. They were the PORTS O' CALL and the SOUTHERN SEAS, if I remember correctly. Unfortunately they no longer operate, and no one that I have ever asked about them at Disney World knew their fate.

Sic transit gloria mundi.

Thanks, Frank! I knew those names but they escaped me this afternoon. I did not know they no longer ran...too bad. I'm assuming it is/was the Florida humidity that did them in? Do you know if they had any counterparts in California?

Disneyland in CA has a stern-wheeler, the Columbia, and it is steam-powered (and it is "navigated" around the "river" on a track.) I've been going there from time to time since Disneyland first opened, and I don't recall there ever being a side-wheeler. Columbia was one of the original attractions.

Jim (in San Diego)

Thanks everyone, I talked to the National Park Service about the Eureka and the Eppleton Hall and got some positive answers from them. You all have given some great ideas that ought to be very helpful. The Chattanooga Star is certainly one I'll have to check into as well!

As a side note to this search, does anyone know a link to a page that lists the stats of the Quaker City (the ship used by Mark Twain in Innocents Abroad?) I need to find the length of that ship and compare it to some of the ships you all have kindly suggested I look into. Thanks 🙂

Disney World Sidewheelers

Here is an excerpt about the Disney boats.

http://www.bigbrian-nc.com/7seas.htm

The original Southern Seas was scrapped in 1977 due to an unfortunate accident in DryDock. The "Seas" sunk due to the removal of a stern thruster before the bilges were pumped. Needless to say when you remove a large piece of machinery from the hull, it doesn't take much to take on water. When Maintenance got back, the "Seas" port side was sitting on the bottom and the starboard side was still tied up at the dock. It was really strange to go on board a vessel that was listing at 45 degrees! The pieces that were saved from both steamships are used throughout the parks, most of them are at Typhoon Lagoon. The ships whistle, bell and brass steering wheel and binnacle are on top of the TL ticket booths. The steam engine gauges and front plate are on a wall near the gift shop. When Disney survived the "hostile takeover" events in the late 1970's, many of the authentic assets were discontinued for financial reasons. It was costly to run an authentic steamship that was slow, low in guest capacity and high in maintenance. When the "Seas" sank in DryDock, the new "Seas" was built using diesel-electric paddlewheels and showing the action of an A-Frame, walking beam steam engine. The "Ports" was retired and then the new "Seas" retired in the late 90's.

I haven't read Innocents Abroad, so I don't know if the Quaker City to which you refer is really a ship, or if its a steamboat. There was a steamboat so named, built in 1853 which was 152x28x5.2. 1853-59 from Way's...

What became of the boilers and engines from the various boats that were either scrapped or converted to diesel?

I'd be interested to learn the fate of their whistles and/or calliopes if they had them.

Hank Bloomer;5688 wrote: What became of the boilers and engines from the various boats that were either scrapped or converted to diesel?

Hank, the fate of engines and boilers is varied. On conversions, sometimes the steam engines are still aboard the boat, as in the case of the PRESIDENT. Maybe Judy can tell us what happenned to the ADMIRAL's engines. Other times, when boats were scrapped, the engines either went to a new boat (CLAIRTON's engines now serve as propulsion power on the NATCHEZ; the engines from the USACE dredge KENNEDY now serve on the AMERICAN QUEEN; engines from the Str. CITY OF BATON ROUGE have been working on the JULIA BELLE SWAIN since the early 1970's), or maybe to storage (N.O. Steamboat Co. has a pair of steam engines in storage for a new boat they might want to build at some point). Other engines have gone to museums...there is a set of engines at the Mud Island Museum in Memphis. Franz has documented cases in Europe of engines being re-used there on other boats.

In the case of boilers, when the GORDON C. GREENE was removed from service, the boilers went to the BELLE OF LOUISVILLE. When the PRESIDENT was dieselized, the boilers were converted to tanks for compressed air to run various systems on the boat.

If you want specific info on a particular boat, my guess is that someone on this board either knows the fate of the equipment you are looking for, or can find out.

I was specifically interested in the Disney boats that were under discussion.