Topic starter
10/03/2011 6:23 pm
I read several posts saying the DQ had her wheel removed but this photo looks like there are wheel spokes showing. Was the entire wheel removed or just parts?
10/03/2011 8:54 pm
*RE: DELTA QUEEN transit, 1947*
Hi, Mike:
Yes, the DQ's wheel was dismantled and stowed in her deck room for the long transit to New Orleans. This to avoid 'drag' in a rolling sea or any related damage. Again, Capt. Fred Way's book, 'Saga of the DELTA QUEEN,' 1951 tells all and more. Upon reaching AVONDALE MARINE WAYS, New Orleans, the DQ underwent two months of work uncrating her to remove the 50,000 board feet of boxing, boiler, engine work before steaming up to Cincinnati; thence on to DRAVO in Pittsburgh for intensive renovation/remodeling. All that U.S. Navy paint needed a fresh coat of white. For years there was one place on the boat where a segment of that navy paint could still be seen and that was under the seat of the wood deck bench just outside of the boat's Purser Office. Anybody know if it still can be seen or has it been painted over?
Fred Way, Charlie Dietz, engineer, had worked in California preparing the boat but were not permitted to make the transit due to government regs and union specifications. They, along with a big group of working friends, met the boat in New Orleans to assist. A nice story well told. Included in the book is a log of the transit with events, weather etc. included.
R. Dale Flick
Coal Haven Landing, Ohio River, Cincinnati.
10/03/2011 8:57 pm
Wheel
You are right. They must have removed the paddles only. Look a couple of pages in and there is no way her wheel was on. If you look at the picture of the boat going up the Mississippi the wheel and spokes are very visable below the hull. In the picture above there are no spokes below the cover or hull. Might they have just removed the lower parts of the wheel?
10/03/2011 9:47 pm
Dale I remember peeling a few paint chips off the Bow back in the 80's when I was Mate on her and I found grey under about 7 or 8 layers of red and green.
10/03/2011 9:49 pm
I also remember one Lay-up, 1980 I believe, at Boland Marine where upon tearing into some maindeck bulkheads we found some USN silverwear and a letter either to or from a sailor.
10/03/2011 10:01 pm
Mike, your answer in a photo
Without pontificating on peripheral issues, here is the answer to your question: those were not the spokes visible in the photo you posted, but rather the scalloped side of the wheel covering. If you look at your photo, you can see this side connected to the curved cover enveloping the wheel area. The man is the photo is Engineer Charlie Dietz, whom I never met nor was related to. Hope this satisfies your puzzlement about the wheel being disassembled for the trip. Keep up the questions, its still winter here in the hinterlands and gives us something to dig for!
Topic starter
10/03/2011 11:27 pm
Look closely at my photo at the center hole in the wheel cover below the name. It looks like 2 spokes are showing.
11/03/2011 4:02 am
Hi all
When we moved the Dredge Captain Meriwether Lewis from Gasconade, Missouri to Brown ville, Nebraska. We removed the bucket boards and the wheel arms that were in the water or I guess actually we remove enough so that when we rolled the wheel there was nothing in the water to catch drift or cause drag. We cut the "U' bolts with a torch and maybe at the flanges as well but we might have been able to back this nuts off. My bet is there was nothing on the DQ's shaft but the flanges. It took us longer to reassemble that to dissemble.
a riverrat