Delta Queen pilothouse

Hank,

It most certainly is the same pilothouse!

In 1953, the original steam-assisted steering apparatus (9' dia. oak wheel and steam assist levers) were removed and a modern hydro-electric steering lever set added. This was to provide for a back-up unit where the old cable operated wheel had none.

The Wing Bridges added behind the pilothouse during the Navy operation were later moved (correct me here if I am wrong, I believe 1964 they were moved to new doors cut into the pilothouse at the location of the middle window) forward. In the late 90's new wings were fitted with outside staircases (one either side) and the center staircase from the former Officers Quarters was removed. At this same time the pilothouse roof was raised about 1 foot with steel structural supports placed within the structure. Several load bearing bulkheads below the pilothouse were removed in a reconfiguration of the former Officers Quarters to allow for luxurious suites to be added for passenger comfort.

My point being, the pilothouse is the original. Like the proverbial family axe, the thing has had a few replaced and relocated parts over the years. However, it is still the same original pilothouse!

~Travis~

Hank, Travis & steamboating colleagues:
I'm woefully behind up here in the woods of the far north checking Steamboats.org and my own arriving E=Mails. Again, thanks to those who have sent messages and 1,000 pardons for me not replying yet. Weather here now cool to chilly tonight with winds in from northern Lake Michigan and Superior. That's summer here.

*The discussion Re: the DELTA QUEEN pilothouse reconfiguration, modernization etc. is interesting. A lot of things were going on over the years and I'm glad Travis nailed down the modernization data. Yes, I have a color photo back in Cincinnati [600 miles south] taken at the time the original wood pilot wheel was removed and the new system installed. I 'think' Andy Lodder, Capt. Tom Greene's chum and top photographer in his own right, took that shot as 'one for the record.' There may have been another 'before' shot showing the old pilot wheel system but I can't lay my hands on it as all of my materials, photos, records are back in Cincinnati. That will have to wait until fall.

In my early years on/around the boat and the old GREENE LINE [1950s on] I recall the DQ pilothouse being sheeted/covered with a kind of canvas material. In earlier days the sides of the pilothouses on both DK/DQ were set with wood moldings in squares and rectangles. For years the decks were covered with tightly stretched canvas painted that unmistakable deck gray. There was a discussion on this web a couple of years ago regarding the intricate job of laying, stretching, painting that deck canvas. There was also the custom of treating the canvas with hot lead to seal all.

Question: Have any of you seen the old photos of the DK/DQ docked in Sacramento on hot summer days with the upper decks totally shrouded in white canvas to ward off the hot sun and keep the upper cabins cool? For years the brass eyelets were still in evidence but I have no idea if they exist now. I seldom see or board the boat and haven't made a trip in a number of years. I'm enjoying all of the postings, photos and links from afar.

Cheers from the pine woods of the far north,
R. Dale Flick

Glad you jumped in Travis. Now I understand the addition of the metal poles hidden in the wood posts in the Texas lounge.
Additional changes that make the pilothouse look different are the removal of the mouldings on the front of the pilothouse (although their removal occured a looong time ago) and the change-out of two of the front windows with a single larger window installed at a slant, more typical of Missippi boats than California boats. I suppose that happened when the wheel was removed? Unfortuantely, I don't have a bunch of period photos to glean through to figure it out!
Steamcerely,
David D.

Thanks, Travis. It was the different height, roof, and window configuration that made me think it was a new structure. Like the proverbial axe indeed.

Any idea as to why they raised the pilothouse roof? For a time, the outside of the pilothouse looked like it had been stuccoed. This was removed down to the original woodwork, which was restored, some time in the 1980's. Do you know if the front window of the pilothouse can be opened, as it frequently was when I was on there, due to the fact that there was no air conditioning?

Capt. Lexie,

The front window to the Pilothouse is now sealed shut. There is A/C up there now in the form of a rather large 11,000btu unit in the stb'd back window. It does a pretty good job, too!

~Travis~

Hank, you have rediscovered a fact of steamboat life that researchers have known for a long time: steamboats change. A boat is probably still within sight of the shipyard when someone aboard changes something, and it goes on until she is scrapped. It is a subtle thing. The engineer moves a valve to a more conventient place. A stair direction gets changed. The mate's cubby is too small, so he knocks out a bulkhead. The company decides to change the color scheme. The list is endless. Inevitably, the boat gets heavier.

DQ pilothouse pix

Here are two postings showing the exterior transition of the DQ pilothouse. 1) in her first year in California(yes, its the DK, but they were identical) 2) laid up in California. The boxy wingbridge with entrance from the back door/roof 3) the overhang has been added 4) metal railings replaced the wooden wingbridge, still accessed from the roof; and one large window in front 5) side doors added and wingbridges are accessed from pilothouse
6) current setup with exterior stairs leading to pilothouse and wingbridges

rest of the photos

Here are photos 4, 5, and 6, described above.

They installed a rinky dink unit while I was working on there and it lowered the temperature a whopping 5 degrees. Useless. That is why they put in such a big one.

Capt. Lexie,

I am sure that is why...and I tell you it really keeps up now days! It is the shining star of each and every pilothouse tour!

~Travis~

Union Jack

Also note that the DQ is flying a Union Jack in photo #3-- looks like the pic was taken at the foot of Silver Street in Natchez. What's that large shantyboat-looking arrangement the Queen has her stern against?

Judy, in your pictures #3 and #4 there is what appears to be a small flue/chimney/stack in the approximate middle of the DQ roof, one picture shows lots of smoke coming from it.

Seems to be too far back for the galley, too small for galley venting and the smoke is the wrong density for food cooking. Too dark for a generator exhaust...an incinerator, maybe?

What is it, anybody know?

It's the ''Charlie Noble" that you spy. It's not the fumes from the food that you see, it's the smoke from the stove's fire that you are lookin' at.

Kitchen in the Hold

The cook stove was down in the mid-hold-- later the crew's mess, and probably crew's quarters now. The stove burned kerosene that was carried in a huge tank in the Linen Room on the stabbard side, Main Deck. The cement topped deck under the nearly red-hot stove was less than a couple of feet over a fuel bunker and the supports atop the tank supporting the deck and stove were wood soaked with oil from years of overflows. Atop the tanks were years of oil accumulations.

During the summer of 1965, the heat radiating from the stove combined with that generated from within the steam-heated Bunker-C fuel tanks and set the wood ablaze. When the fire was discovered (perhaps by Captain Doc Hawley) Captain Wagner had the deck broken through, and later said that he came mighty close to landing the boat and putting everyone ashore. What really made the Skipper angry was that the two old-timer watchmen had been padding atop the deck on their every-twenty-minute clock rounds and failed to detect something was amiss.

Wagner debated letting both of them go, as it may well have been one of the closest calls the old gal ever had. Eventually the kero-fueled stove was removed, and since then the deck, fuel tanks, and underpinnings have since been rebuilt, eliminating the hazard, and the Queen has survived as a much safer boat into the 21st Century.