The Mississippi Queen-the forgotten one...

Great pictures

What a return to the days of yesteryear! Thanks for those memories Mel. Not only do you show those things Travis pointed out, which not all river buffs have forgotten, but you've got a great collection of pilot portraits. Thanks for sharing with us.

I'm truely glad I could share these with everyone and yes its the little things in the backround that really mean something. When I went on the reunion cruise in Aug. of 97 on the DQ I hated what they had done to the boat and how it was being run. Bob and I talked about how landing the boat used to be a show we put on for the passengers but the enthusiasm was gone and they no longer used the loud speaker nor did the deckhands run with the lines tugging them up the hill and too many other things to mention.
I'll be posting some more pics soon, Enjoy, Mel

how much is she up for sale for?

Mel,

I just dumped a pile of old pics on my profile, too. Perhaps some of them will bring up some memories as well!

Many things have changed on the rivers from back in the day. At least we still have the BELLE OF LOUISVILLE, JULIA BELLE SWAIN, and NATCHEZ to keep the dreams alive!

~Travis~

wow, what wonderful photos Travis! I always believe that I was born 20 years too late, and seeing all these wonderful shots makes me think that even more.

Shes not on the market yet Matt but they way it sounds she will be.

Hey Keith I'm not sure if I still have it but I used to have the original Overseas National Airways flag for the MQ. If I run across it would you like it for the museum? Its a huge flag btw.

Travis those are awesome pics! Thank you so much !!

Thanks Matt!

Actually, you were probably born at the right time...for you are the generation who can take steamboating to the next generation for many of us! Your level of excitement tells me you can do it!

Oh...and be sure to write your sitting and possible newly elected officials to save the DELTA QUEEN!

~Travis~

Thanks Mel,

One of these days I will finish a project I started 5 years ago...scanning all my old pics of the boats. As I get new ones, I will change them out on the profile. If it goes too long and I haven't...remind me to do it! Cause once in a while I forget to do these kind of things!

~Travis~

Actually all of the boats in the MAL fleet are for sale. I assume the best point of contact would be Joseph McCarthy (Ambassador International .... General Counsel I think).

Actually, I wrote our President-elect Barrack Obama, and got a generic e-mail back. I couldn't find an address, so I figured that would be good for now. I am also going to get in touch with Gillibrand and see if I can change her mind about the exemption.

Bruno Krause;13277 wrote: Some of us saw the painful, ugly pictures after the Mississippi Queen was 'lightened', after the contactor removed many of her inside staterooms.

In case you may be wondering what Bruno is refering to, here's the link to the pictures from last summer of the gutted MQ -

Inside A Gutted Queen

Sigh.

John

John,

Having just looked over the pictures again, I can't help but feel like something has been stolen from me. Remembering the christening of the boat at Cincinnati, her first shakedown cruise from Cox's Park in Louisville...her return to the Ohio River in July of 1978 as a feasible overnight steamboat. All this was my childhood on the Ohio River at Louisville.

Now she is gone. One can only hope something spectacular happens, for say what you will, she was a great vessel and I worked many a very happy hour aboard that boat with some wonderful passengers!

I hope someone stumbles upon this site and learns about the plight of our overnight steamboats. I hope whom ever they are they have the facilities to make this happen! For if the boats are running and operational, people will come. As they have for almost 200 years to ride around the bend on an authentic steamboat propelled by a paddlewheel on the Mighty Mississippi!

Save the DELTA QUEEN....restore the MISSISSIPPI QUEEN!

~Travis~

Travis -

My wife and I only took one cruise on the MQ - Sep 2006, UMR southbound. Didn't know it at the time, but it was one of the last UMR cruises for the MQ.

Looking at the pictures brings a tear in my eye as well. Even though we only spent a week, we had a lot of great memories. Playing the calliope. Sitting in the upper paddle wheel lounge, watching the river go by. I can still see where we sat in the dining room. Getting called up to the stage by Phil the cruise director for the balloon game. Buying Christmas presents for our kids in the gift shop. Flying kites. Having a hot dog and a beer at the Calliope bar. Walking into the lobby for the first time.

But perhaps the biggest memory will be the lady who asked me a simple question - "Who will come when we are gone?" She was in her late 70s, and was referring to her peers who made up 99% of the passengers. She told me about all of the cruises she had been on, and which of the three queens was her favorite (Delta, of course). But age and health were getting the best of her and her traveling companions, and she was only able to do one more cruise. We talked about who would fill the void when she and her friends stopped cruising, and were hard pressed to find an answer.

Even if the DQ gets exempted, the MQ is return to service, and the AQ stays running, the big question remains - who will come? Not the younger generation - a river cruise is the exact opposite of what they want in a vacation. The middle-agers? Not likely given the current economic situation. The older generation? Still there, but may not be enough to keep three boats filled. So, who?

Sad to say, the reality of the situation is that boats like the queens may not ply the rivers again. It's simple math - money coming in from paying passengers needs to be greater then money going out for expenses. Without the passengers, the math won't add up. The previous owners found this out the hard way.

Sigh.

John

PS - Please don't take this the wrong way - just trying to be realistic. I applaud the efforts of everyone trying to save the DQ. If nothing else happens, the DQ needs to remain in service to keep the history alive. It's a piece of America. Period.

This is the first time I have been able to find these photos, now I kinda wish I hadn't. Looking at them reminds me too much of the liner SS Norway on the beaches of India. I see all these familiar spaces that are only a slight reminder of the grandness they once were. I'm so happy I did get to go aboard the MQ, just by chance one time when she was in Louisville with the DQ, and since I had arranged a pass for the DQ, the crew of the MQ invited me on over. Sad images, I say people post some of their favorite scenes they captures on her when she was a thriving steamboat!

John,

The answer is simple...it is time to market the product to people as what it is...an authentic steamboat ride.

In the 1970's the boats were usually more of a mixed crowd than they have been in the last few years. I remember it was common place to see families aboard the boat.

In recient years, the crowd has been older for many reasons.

First off, the boat is a very safe place to be. You have a crew watching your every move and taking care of you at every step. Because they were marketed as cruise lines and later even as ships, many passengers became upset upon boarding the vessels when their ammendities didn't add up to the ship-based information in the brochure. Although the boats are just as safe (if not safer in so many ways) than cruise ships...many seasoned cruise line passengers were not too happy with out relatively little paddlewheel riverboats when they expected a big ship with 40 feet of freeboard and multiple pools!

Second, the boats were just not affordable for younger people towards the end, unless they were quite afluent. With fuel prices what they are, there is little way around this fact. So to survive concessions will have to be made somewhere to make up for it.

The last operators believed the price point was not a problem if they added certain "value features" to the boats, like several hundred thread count sheets, very heavy comforters, pillow top mattresses, make up mirrors, plush bath robes (you should have seen the jaws drop when some passengers wore these to breakfast!), and TVs on all the boats (other than the DELTA QUEEN). Many people complained the heavy comforters didn't make sence on summer voyages, and they didn't. The TV's were met with upset as they didn't have any programming from onboard; like lectures live in the room, Showroom presentations and shows, bow camera, etc. As well, the TV's were unreliable as bridges and high intensity power lines inturupted the satelite reception and many times required a total reset from the Engineering Department before signal was restored to the passenger stateroom.

I don't think appealing to a modern cruise ship traveler was a wise decision. Tell them what the product is and make sure you can deliver it and they will be happy with it and tell people who will look into it and want to do it as well.

In the days of the late Delta Queen Steamboat Company, we openly advertised the product as what it was....a steamboat cruise/ride.

If pricing and timing (5-7 day cruises are about all most people can take the time to make) were correct, the next thing is education as to what the product is and why it doesn't have all those electronic appliances...and why that is okay!

Activities would be a problem in some cases. There just isn't space to have multiple activities going on aboard a riverboat. So more emphasis on the ecology and deck activities would be in order. Perhaps a Naturalist AND a Riverlorian would be in order for this. One complaint I heard many times was, we always travel at night and stay in port all day. An activity can be made out of a cruising day very easy!

I truly believe it is all in how it is advertised and the level of education the printed materials offer. I never would have thought I woud enjoy going to Dollywood a few years ago...the advertisement I read opened my eyes to what it would be and by doggies that is what it was and so much more! I believe the same could be said about the boats if the brochure and advertisement were done correctly.

So I truly believe there is a market for the boats...it is all about advertising what they are....steamboats! Paddlewheelers, just like the boats we traveled on when building this country over 200 years ago.

If the pricing can be reasonable and the product reliable, they will come, all ages, races, creeds!

~Travis~

Ok Travis its a deal. Heck your not even old yet. makes me think of Johns song Old Time rivermen. I'm putting together a DVD of video footage that I got from all over the place that I put to music, 90% of it John Hartfords, and its about an hour of Boats and Music. I'll send you a copy when I'm done.

Hey Travis I was on that 78 cruise as head deckhand and we had a big party when we left Vicksburg. Gabe was Capt. and Dave Rainbolt was Cheif mate Dave williamson was first mate and Randy Osborne was second Mate. None of the deck crew including me had ever made a lock. Ill never forget that cruise. I fell down the steps on the Belles Wharf boat and bruised my back and Dave Rainbolt wanted to send me home and I wouldnt hear of it. I was pulling a danged hose.

I was also the first one to paint the trim around those windows yellow. Oh and Travis many a nite when I got off watch as mate at midnite my favorite place to go was above the Caliope bar and stand up there by the mermaids and have a cold beer.

Oh and John Travis and I used to have this cat and mouse game when he was a kid and I was a young Mate. Travis would sneak on to play the caliope and my job was to try and catch him and throw him off the boat......to my recollection I think he was more successful than I. This was on both the DQ and the MQ. My first few years they tossed me back and forth and I'd work 7 or 8 weeks without a break. And I loved it because I had the best of both worlds and a woman on each boat lol.

Mel,

I'll bet it was fun being with a crew of green(e) deckhands and having 12 locks in one cruise!

Do you remember who the "special" passenger was that cruise? You had a rather famous TV star on that cruise. I will remind you with a hint....she was a famous TV mother on a space ship!

Let me see if I can find the pic of Capt Gabe doing a TV interview here at Louisville. I had recordings of him playing the calliope for the reporter, too. Her name is Jean West with Channel 11, WHAS TV here in Louisville.

Vic Tooker and his Riverboat Ramblers were aboard for entertainment and Wm Terry Severns was Cruise Director.

Remember that horrible whistle she carried for the first 3 seasons? Here is a picture of the version she carried the last 2 years before replacement. I got to blow that whistle once, 20 minutes before departure one afternoon in 1979.

It seems to me one of the whistles in the original triad was removed while at Avondale the first time. Then the GORDON C GREENE's whistle was fitted temporarily (I think if memory serves me correctly for just one cruise and removed because of flow problems). Then the original whistle was replaced aboard her until the whistle was replaced with the 12" Lunkenheimer whistle from the MISSOURI in spring of 1980. It was thought there would be a family resemblance between the boats since the DELTA QUEEN has a 10" Lunkenheimer whistle...there was!

The original whistle was built by Arthur Davis who also built the calliope. For some unknown reason he made the bases very small, as one would do with an low pressure air-operated whistle. Hence the thing was always over blowing and was rather quiet by steam whistle standards!

The new whistle (which in the most recient pictures I have seen is still aboard her) was a marked improvement. However, it would have sounded better with higher presure and a feed bigger line!

There was a Lower Ohio River round trip cruise from Cincinnati after that first trip up in 1978....then back to the Lower Mississippi.

Our family reunion (and my Grandparents 50th anniversary) was the week of the downbound cruise (and in Providence, RI)...so I wasn't there for that trip.

Enough memories...time for bed!

~Travis~

Mel,

Do you know who did the deed and when the mermaids were painted to be somewhat anatomically correct?

Because in the last 20 years they were.

Someone at some point jumped over the railing with some paint and did some touch up work...and they have stayed that way to this day!

~Travis~

Mel,

Adding the yellow trim really gave her the steamboaty look she needed back then! So did the star on the wheel cranks she had in 1979-1985. For some reason after that it wasn't always there if it appeared at all! I remember how proud Capt. Gabe was of the white shaft and white circle on the wheel when she came back up on the Ohio in 1978! Prior to that, she had a all red wheel...no trim on it what so ever!

~Travis~

HA HA ,,,HAY TRAVIS;;;
Do the DEED ,,,,in deed ,,,,....
,,,,,:)