Spread on the Delta Queen

Did the paper make a mistake?

The only steamboat to traverse the Panama Canal.

I don't see how this statement could be correct. Did they get something wrong? Could it be that they meant the only steam powered sternwheeler to traverse the Panama Canal?

Somehow, one boat powered by steam in the history of the canal seems a bit hard to believe.

I tend to agree with you. I can't see the Delta Queen being the only steam powered boat to traverse the Panama Canal. Now, if you limit this to paddlewheel steamboats, or more specifically, sternwheelers, I can see this possibly being the case.

Bruce MacCullagh;1124 wrote: I don't see how this statement could be correct. Did they get something wrong? Could it be that they meant the only steam powered sternwheeler to traverse the Panama Canal?

Somehow, one boat powered by steam in the history of the canal seems a bit hard to believe.

Richard,

Tom Schiffer posted about the articles yesterday and I added the link

http://www.steamboats.org/forum/showthread.php?t=393

But I can see that they´ve added some more articles by today.

Carmen

The articles are great- feeds the steamboat addiction.

As for steamboats and the Panama Canal- I think you are right. The writer is using steamboat and paddlewheeler interchanably but I understand how that is. I admit that I also do it here in the northeast. Whenever I explain what I used to do, I still have to explain:
1. No, they are not floating casinos.
2. Yes, they are floating hotels.
3. Yes, they are steam-powered but also use a paddlewheel.
4. The fuel to create the steam is bunker C or #6 for the DQ and MQ and diesel on the AQ.

I have to say this almost every single time if I say that I worked on the riverboats on the heartland rivers.

Cheers
Elaine

Not to denigrate reporters/writers, but rarely do they get the "technical" stuff right. As Elaine said, to them a paddlewheeler and a steamboat are the same thing. It is much like talking to someone who has absolutely no idea about the boats or the river...before they began to write the story, many did not know there was such a thing. The folks who are supposed to be feeding them the right info. often are just as guilty. The DQ company had a PR spokesman about 35 years ago that told the most blatant lies you can imagine about the boats, passing it off as fact. I'm sure many of the old timers on here will know of whom I speak.

Crew members on my boat invariably think the overnight pax boats and the B of L, etc., are casinos. I had a cook several years back who thought the CASINO QUEEN at East St. Louis was "the most beautiful boat she had ever seen". When I telll people I am a riverboat captain, they wonder if I work on the passenger boats -- no, but I have, I tell them. They don't know the difference and even though they seem fascinated by any explanation I may give them, most remember nothing about what they are told about it.

When I was on the boats of the Memphis Queen Line several years ago, we had a reporter, who was on vacation, write a story about his cruise, and he filed it before he left our office. It was riddled with the silliest sentimental B.S. you can imagine, and not even half true. I complained when he showed it to me, and he told me, "This is what people want to read about this". I have been mis-quoted numerous times by reporters and newspaper writers. This is the reason for "Media Relations Specialists" and why other employees of any company are always told to respond "no comment" to reporters. Doesn't matter what you tell them, they'll get something wrong.

Well said Captain Bob : )

But, I do confess to having a degree in journalism so have done my share of misinformation as well. Today, I laugh at the misconceptions. But it is also true that those of us who do not live near the rivers where these beautiful boats are, do not have nearly the same appreciation for them. I love the boats but until I worked on them, I really knew very little about them. I would have been just as guilty of all the confusion about "all boats are gambling casinos" sort of thinking. The media, Disney, Hollywood, --- they contribute to these thoughts. The other day, I was sitting somewhere and some people were trying to outdo each other remembering disasters (probably because of Katrina anniversary specials). When I brought up the Sultana- they never heard of it.

But I did enjoy the stories especially Mary Charlton and Captain Gabe explaining their love of the boats and the rivers. That was terrific for me who misses the boats so much.

I'm not taking up for the journalists...they are all too good at doing that for themselves, but when you consider that many of them have a daily deadline, it is a wonder to me that they get as much correct as they occasionally do. In addition, they consider that they are writing to a public with an understanding on about the seventh grade level.

Both good points, Tom. What my biggest irritation is is when they are fed the right info. and change things around, supposedly to "improve readability", and it twists it around to a totally different meaning.

Yes, Bob, I have had it happen too. I write for periodicals and have had it happen when my copy got to the editor. Fortunately, it has been very seldom as I deal with editors who, within the field in which I write, have knowledge approaching that of a Fred Way about steamboating.

Hi Bob: Mr. D.D. who I think you were referring to could tell the most terrible lies of anybody I've ever known. After he really left the DQ, although he always billed himself as a rep. of the DQ, he got quite handsome fees for his talks. If he was in a city he would embelish his tales with local falsehoods. I was at a talk he gave at the Cinti library where he got carried away on our street names. Race St. was where the rich kids ran their horses, Vine St. was an area overgrown with vines, Elm St. was lined with fantastic huge Elms. He had a story for every street ! I don't remember his story for Main. Nobody ever called his bluff. With all the lies he told, I expect his tales now lead to heated discussion.

Amen! Not to bash Mr. D, but what he didn't know he made up, and worst of all he believed his own bull. But on the plus side, I'm sure that his rollicking tales, accurate or not, brought a few passengers aboard the old Queen.

...and while he may have been a decent person, it is too bad that his 'tales' were appreciated more than the truth by too many people! Ah, I can still hear the strains of the DQ's calliope as it was played as they went through the Panama Canal!

Purely speculative....if one HAD been able to play the calliope in the Panama Canal, what tunes would have been appropriate?

Of course, we all know the calliope on the DELTA QUEEN was not installed until January 1960 (somehow I figured I had better qualify this with verifiable fact for safetys sake).

Yes, I have encountered some of the "tales" of the aforementioned person. It can be hard to dispell fiction with the facts sometimes.

Take it from a dedicated researcher - newspapers almost never report a fire before it happens; other than that, don't trust them.

Within the last year (and a half) or so someone sent to me a death notice from the Cincinnati Enquirer of a person fitting the description of the Tall Tale Teller I believe we are referring to here. Does anyone know if the former Detla Queen person in question has made his final crossing? The death notice stated the person was a resident of a city in Northern Kentucky.

Capt. Blum, Mr. D did in fact make that final crossing. I hope he told the truth on his arrival at those pearly gates.

Two of his contemporaries, CCH and Vic Tooker, both prevaricators without peer themselves, were involved in catching him in a whopper of a tale. At an Ohio River shorestop, some ladies from town came down to the DQ and told the stage watchman that they had met the Captain in town and that he had invited them aboard for a visit. Since Capt. Wagner had been napping and had not left the boat yet, it was obvious that an impersonator was at large. Doc and his crew ascertained which crew members had gone ashore, and it was pretty clear who the culprit was. So when he was back on board on duty, Doc and Vic searched his room and found a Captain's hatband which he obviously had been wearing over his real one. They took it with them, and of course, the burglary victim couldn't protest since he himself had acquired it illegally!

Judy, I'd never heard that one. I cannot say it surprises me.

Yep, Jim, last time I looked his house was for sale in Newport. It will probably command a healthy price too, as it's half a block from Newport on the Levee and the outside 'pears to be in good shape.