Topic starter
24/07/2006 3:13 pm
Dear steamboatin colleagues:
Finally getting around to catching up on postings here and enjoying all the great news and information. Summer here in the big woods moving ahead. Thanks for E=Mails to Cincinnati which are intercepted up here.
Great discussion about firemen etc. Local library here has fine maritime collection Re: boats, ships etc. Found that dependable, economical boat/ship boilers really took off on/around 1878 with the development of 'Siemen's Steel.' Lower coal consumption and ability to maintain pressures of 125 lbs per sq. in.
DENNY BROS., Dumbarton, Scotland, builders of the DELTA KING/DELTA QUEEN were pioneers in the fabrication of steamboats as 'knock down' items to be shipped around the world. Old Jim Burns, as previously discussed, apprenticed with DENNY in his early years in iron hull ship building and steam engineering before coming to California and joining the California Transportation Co. He negotiated the equipment and hulls with his old colleagues in Scotland. Though remarkable to us, DENNY handled the contract as just another unremarkable job to be completed. It's an interesting story hearing from John Burns how the idea to build the DELTA KING/DELTA QUEEN was initially hatched in 1922.
DENNY provided alone to the 'Irrawddy Flotilla Co.' some 600 steamboats, lighters, tenders etc. and by 1939 it was the largest river fleet in the world. World War II, and the incursion of the Japanese forces, saw all of this fleet deliberately scuttled. DENNY continued on in business until 1950. Today the majority of the yards in Scotland have been closed, demolished and land taken for new development. Records, plans, photos etc. were removed from some of these old companies and now reside in the local university archives there.
John Burns, son of old Jim Burns, related in an interview that the EVANS CO. of San Francisco, in addition to mounting the DK/DQ engines and components, served as the 'paper handler' in getting the materials into California to meet the Steamboat Inspection Service. John Burns again and again in his cable messages to DENNY hints at "...being careful of the Steamboat Inspection Service...make things legal."
Cheers to all,
R. Dale Flick in the north woods.