Delta King

That is odd. The portholes as I remember them were farther up where the hull flares out to form the guard. I have one of those DQ portholes. A piece of steel is welded into the opening, probably to comply with the CG, then they took them out altogether, so that's how I got one. I will soon make an attempt to remove the piece of steel. We had thought about putting it in a door, but it is extremely heavy.

DK Photo - The Smokestack?

Dear Steamboaters,

This question comes from Vacation Steamboat School.
Can someone date this photo? Is this post-Alaska, and is that the stack that is still somewhere in California, river and the subject of an earlier post?

Many thanks.

Wesley

Wesley Paulson;26486 wrote: Dear Steamboaters,

This question comes from Vacation Steamboat School.
Can someone date this photo? Is this post-Alaska, and is that the stack that is still somewhere in California, river and the subject of an earlier post?

Many thanks.

Wesley

David Dewey is the one in the know on this, and I hope he'll correct me if I'm wrong. As I understood the history, both the King and Queen had the portholes, but somewhere along the line, post Kitimat the KING has windows cut into her hull? Which were later covered back over, and these larger openings were a big contributor to one or both of her sinkings.

I may be wrong on that, and the reason I say that is today the King has portholes in place, and one would assume they would just have plated over the windows and not spent the extra money to put portholes back in.

As to the stack, that is indeed the same stack that is in Isleton, CA being used as some sort of storage shed. There is a photo of it floating around somewhere.

DK history

Here is a great DK history which Paul Penta originally posted. In it is the picture on this thread with the caption: Notice the windows in the hull.
http://maritimematters.com/2010/06/the-delta-king-california’s-monarch-by-shawn-j-dake/

date

this is post Alaska. July 1969.

Stack photo

Here is the stack photo which Wesley posted a while back:
Panoramio - Photo of Smokestack from the old Delta King paddlewheeler

When I spent a long weekend on the Delta king about 9 years ago, I recall portholes still being present when I was given a tour of the boat by one of it's employees

HI all,
Been busy at the National S Gauge train convention in Sacramento.
Yes, that's a photo of the DK tied up at, I believe, the west side of the Sacramento river just below the Tower Bridge, and 1969 seems about right.
Someone cut the windows in when she was in the Stockton area, and yes, that did lead to her sinking for many months at Rio Vista a few years later. I believe that when she was at Rio Vista the boilers and the stack were removed. The stack went across the river to Isleton, where it is still, serving as a storage shed.
Hope this helps some. I didn't dig into records to check exact dates, so y'all will have to trust my "state-of-the-art" RIM memory unit. (RIM=Randomly Inaccessible Memory)
Later, must get sleeeep so can get up early and try to beat morning rush into Sac.
S'
David D.

PS, Yes, as part of the restoration, they did put portholes back in--the did do some amazingly detailed restoration work on her (him?)
S'
DD

MORE on the KING

I dug out three folders of clippings and material on the DELTA KING and found several photos that I thought might be of interest.

Images:
(1) DELTA KING in drydock during her operating days.
(2) DELTA KING at Kitimat, B.C., 1954 - used as bunkhouse for 200 men working on power plant. Steam also used to heat a hospital, school and recreation hall. Look closely to see YFB -55, just above man with shovel.
(3) DELTA KING at Sacramento, California - June, 1971.

Keith,

Very interesting pictures of the KING. I am guessing the drydock picture is very early in her career as there are no windows in the boat house on the bow. After River Lines took over the boats there were portholes in the bulkheads of the boat houses. So this must be in the late 20's? Just a guess.

In Kitimat she looked almost operational form the bow. All the bow pictures make her look hard aground. Wait, she WAS hard aground!

Travis

Love Those Portholes!

Here are some shots from some of the DQ's portholes! Maybe one of them is from the porthole that Lexie now owns!

Where else could you get such a close-up and intimate shot of the DQ as it cut through the water than from one of it's portholes?

1. This shot was taken from my room when I was a deckhand in the early Seventies. The room was on the Port side, and since most of the room was below the water line, you crawled-up the insinde of the hull, openened the porthole, and this is what you saw. The water was rushing just inches below you. You couldn't see much scenery looking towards the bow, because the bow wave was actually higher than the porthole.

2. A view from the port side Capstain Room. Thats the very bow of the boat cutting through the water on the Upper Ohio.

3. Sunset on the same day from the Capstain Room.

-Denny Hamilton-

Porthole shots

Now those are some UNIQUE photos of/from the DQ!

DQ Port Hole

We have a rusty porthole from the DELTA QUEEN at the Howard Steamboat Museum. It is part of the Capt. C.W. Stoll Collection and he told me, years ago, that Capt. Tom Greene gave him the porthole after some work had been done at Dravo.

Of course, our BIGGEST artifact from the DQ is the paddlewheel shaft, removed from the boat in 1980 after it cracked and was replaced (thanks to the wise thinking of someone at Greene Line many years ago) at Jeffboat with the shaft from the DELTA KING.

WOW! Mr. Hamilton, Those are certainly some GREAT shots!!!!

Loved them!

*RE: DQ Portholes Etc.*
Steamboating colleagues:
Great topic along with incredible photos. Thanks to all. A number of us recall the DQ ports in earlier years before they were 'sealed/removed' whatever. I recall them open with interior light visible. Closed with glass other times. I 'think' each boat was equipped with eight ports. But my point is this. In the detailed shipping manifests from DENNY BROS., Dumbarton, Scotland for shipment by freighter of the DK/DQ all components were listed in minute detail down even to the kind of shipping containers--even rivets, nuts, bolts, beams. Among all listed are the portholes from DENNY. DENNY was one huge yard at that time and well before. They had the capacity to cast/mill ports but they also could have been from a supplier to the job under contract. I'm miles away from my files/papers and will sleuth out at summer's end. MIT did extensive porthole water experiments years before the DK/DQ were but a dream finding that one 18 inch port can inject some three tons of water per minuted submerged three feet under the surface. Food for thought.

There also exists several fuzzy photos taken by the insurance adjusters when the hull of the DK was 'cracked' on the ways at DENNY. It was repaired with all taken apart, numbered before shipping to California. At the time the DELTA KING was regarded as the flagship for 'California Transportation Co.' Capt. Anderson and the company were faced with certain "financial issues" before the work on the DQ was finished. They floated bonds to investors with DENNY sending a carefully worded communication stating they would "...carry the DELTA QUEEN on our books at a minimum % rate until your affairs are stronger." Well, what do I know?

R. Dale Flick

Great porthole shots! I think there were more than 8. Would like to know for sure.

*RE: How many ports?*
Hi, Lexie & Steamboating colleagues:
I agree there were possibly more than eight ports on the boats as discussed. I'll check my old 1925/'26 architectural drawings of the boats with the notations by Jim Burns when I return home. Jim's papers I have also include extensive letters and Atlantic cable messages to DENNY BROS., Dumbarton, Scotland. Jim's messages--and return answers by Maurice Denny--were pretty cryptic with no waste of words as they knew exactly what was needed and how to do it. Burns had 'apprenticed' with DENNY years before and was well remembered in various letter/cable statements by the Denny family. As stated in previous .org postings, Burns 'hinted' at the observing eyes of the then U.S. Steamboat Inspection officers here looking over his shoulder constantly. This included the work by EVANS in San Francisco who did the mounting/finishing of the engines for the boats using "components from DENNY." As Alan Bates has stated a boat changed in various ways often from year to year. The subtle comments from DENNY RE: California Transportation Co. financial problems finishing the DQ are more than obvious; yet no doubt the two would be completed as planned.

The prominent 'deck house' on the bow of the boats were built to house male passengers with a bunk compartment below deck at rock bottom low prices not including meals. I'm sure [I 'think'] the lower deck housing also had ports for ventilation and light. Records of registration for the boats on file at London's Greenwich Maritime Museum state the boats were for "ferry service" not using the conventional term "packet" we know as they carried autos and other vehicles. Well, what do I know?

R. Dale Flick
Summer: Northern shors of huge Lake Michigan

Windows

I just came across the S&D Reflector March, 1986 Vol. 23, No. 1 issue. It contains an extensive article of the restoration of the King. Page 5 tells us that part of the resto included the repair of 56 hull cutouts (window openings cut into the hull, not original.) This work was done at Pacific Dry Dock, Oakland, Calif. June and July of 84'.