DQ signage

DQ signage #2

Continuing our tour... the first is the elegant lettering over the roof bell, and note that the boom and mast were painted all white. The second shows the paint job around the calliope, with Dan Forman letting off some steam...and the third was taken in August 1976, showing David Tschiggfrie's bicentennial effort on the bow. Note the name is also red/white/blue.

DQ signage #3

moving along...Note on this banner that the '83 was glued onto it. It covered '78 when that exemption was granted during the '78 season. This banner blocked our view when sitting on the Texas bow. Photo 2: The Voyages to America banner, which was there from ?-74 through the '78 season. It blocked our view of the paddlewheel, and shore people's view of the calliope (I parked over on the starboard corner of the Sundeck so it didn't bother my view.) Also evident is Lexie's nameboard on the Engine Room bulkhead. This was done in '75, and was removed when they put new wood on in '83, I believe. This pix was taken in July 1977. And the best for last: this is how many of us 'oldtimers' remember the pilothouse signage: a wooden board with gilded letters on all three sides of the pilothouse. And on the front was a small gilded eagle - as elegant as it gets, in my opinion. This 3 wooden signs method graces the NATCHEZ pilothouse too. Incidentally, I cannot recall any previous owner displaying its name on the pilothouse. Greene Line had a white jackflag with a green G on it, and also a white G on the smokestack. ONA had a blue jackflag and also two roof flags on the stern. Offhand those are the only company logos I can think of being displayed on the exterior - the boat's name was the thing, not the corporate entity.

Thanks, Judy for posting the DQ signage. The Engine Room work you show (on the L.P. cylinder) was the work of poster Dave Tschiggfrie. The Officers Quarters sign predates any of us posters on here -- work of Doc Hawley, perhaps? Some of the work was done professionally in New Orleans during the 1971 lay-up. In addition to Dave T., Lexie certainly did her share, and Capt. Gabe Chengery, Yours truly, and others did various signs aboard, from mundane "Watch Your Step" and "Please Use Handrails" to the "No Visitors" and "No Smoking during Fueling" signs, and on and on. A steamboat needs someone riding on board who can do sign work.

Most likely that one was Doc's. He said the Orleans Room sign of his is still in use. When we were on the NATCHEZ, it was a challenge for me to find any sign that he hadn't done. Even our temporary food line signs were done by him in that wonderful calligraphy. I did find one in the ladies room that was a generic one...

Judy, what can I say my friend, you know I love this stuff...keep 'em coming. Interesting chairs on the Texas. And the bicentenial bow artwork, Now that is absolute class...

And Bob, I've see those signs every hour it seems, the infamous "watch your step" signs that just scream DQ with the frilliness of the red and gold lettering, and the "no smoking during fueling" that always seems to out at ONLY 5 AM just as I first wake up and I'm just crazy for nicotine. And the hand with the extended index finger pointing down the port cabin deck steps to the engine room, that stuff is just so cool. My hat is off to all of you true artists.

10 foot stroke on both pistons? I'd have never thunk it...I've watched those pistons moving, many times, somehow it never equated in my pea brain to ten feet.

Now I'm a little torqued that I didn't start riding her sooner. Never knew that Capt. Gabe was also an artist, obviously the man is multi-talented!

Ok, who was responsible for all the "DQ leaves at X pm for Y town" signage that they always put at the end of the stage? Especially the huge collection they must have of various but separate "Y Town" signage?

Wonderful...

I have another question...The pictures showing the Cabin and Texas decks, the outside "guardrail" with its expanded metal mesh diamond screening, it appears that there is something round and white in the middle of every other or every third mesh panel. Looks to be about 8 to 10 inches in diameter...What the 'ell is that?

Whew!!! Let me see about all these questions!

I plead guilty to the hand with the extended index finger. I'm surprised it is still there after 27 years! Can it still be the same one? I also did the "No Visitors" sign, with a departure time on the reverse side, but I think the one they use now is newer- as you said, it gives the name of the next port. Mine only gave the time, and we had numbers 1 thru 12, and a colon with ":00" and ":30". Lexie and I argued whether we needed a "noon"and "midnight" tile in addition to "AM"and "PM"; she and Capt. Art Zimmer tried to tell me we didn't need the midnight and noon tiles, but I did 'em anyway...too much opportunity for confusion!

The discs on the wire mesh railing are called "Rosettes". Many boats used to have them, but they were actually fancy metal ones on the older boats. On the DQ, they were just a round piece of masonite! I'm ashamed to admit that I had not noticed they are now gone on the DQ. They were just a decorative attempt to break up the monotony of those wire mesh rails.

I guess one can never learn all there is to know about that boat!

Also note that these pictures show the original square wood railing posts, that are now all round pipe. I don't know when that change came, or if it was dictated by the Coast Guard, or by dry rot!
I'll bet the metal posts don't last as long as the wood ones did! Rust is invasive.
S'
David D.
PS note the mint boxes on the back wall in front of the wheel! Fresh mint julips!

I think Doc Hawley and David Tschiggfrie probably win the title for being the most prolific of the steamboat sign painters, although I know that Lexie, Bob, Gabe and others have done plenty. Years ago, on the BELLE, Doc could take a piece of white cardboard and create a fancifully lettered sign in nothing flat! I have several of his creations and also in my collection is the old PURSER'S OFFICE sign (including pointing arrow) that hung overhead on the main deck of the DQ for years, a gift from Dave, who replaced it in the late 1970's with a new one. I love steamboat signage!

At the Howard Steamboat Museum we have one of the pilothouse nameboards from the AVALON, painted by Doc on masonite, a white background with large red and green shaded lettering. It survived the 1971 fire and some of you saw it displayed last summer when Dave and Jonathan Tschiggfrie presented their wonderful sight and soung program on the history of the boat. We also have a BELLE OF LOUISVILLE nameboard, done by Doc for the front of the pilothouse in the early 1970's. I'm working on a way to get these great relics out of attic storage and on permanent exhibition.

During the winter layup of 1973-74, the boiler deck of the BELLE OF LOUISVILLE was covered with aluminum siding. This included the stern over the paddlewheel where Doc had artfully painted in HUGE shaded letters, STEAMER BELLE OF LOUISVILLE -- PORT OF LOUISVILLE, KY. In those days the BELLE spent the winter alongside the wharfboat RENOWN in the surge basin near McAlpine Locks. As I was standing on the wharfboat, taking pictures and watching Doc, precariously perched on shaky scaffolding while he RE-lettered everything on the new siding, he looked down at me and said, "DAMN, I wish this boat's name was J.S!"

Keith, I'm sure you are right. Doc told me once that if he ever owned a boat, he would name it "ACE". He said you could put the name on a ring buoy with 11 short pieces of electrical tape!

The amazing Capt. Jesse P. Hughes was extremely versatile with a paint brush, whether on canvas or lettering bulkheads on steamboats. He even painted GREENE LINE STEAMERS in HUGE letters on the roof of the wharfboat at Cincinnati - on BOTH sides! Imagine what an undertaking that must have been!

Capt. Mark Doty, of the BELLE OF LOUISVILLE, is also quite skilled at painting steamboat signs. The large curved nameboard over the front stairway is Mark's handiwork, done in 1984, as is the large map, featuring a nice painting of the boat, over the front doors showing all the rivers traversed by the AVALON. Also overhead and mounted nearby is the large metal "A" that was on the stack spreader bar of the AVALON. It later was in the collection of the late Miss Ruth Ferris, beloved St. Louis river historian and museum curator. When she was dispersing her fabulous collection to the Mercantile Library in the late 1980's, I asked her if she would consider donating the "A" for display on the BELLE. Ruth was happy to comply and Mark created a fine exhibit of it.

Bruno, I too wish I had ridden the DQ sooner, in the Greene family days. In 1973 she was just beginning to get the corporate creeping, but she was still a boat first and foremost and the Captain had the last word on navigation decisions. But I would have loved the even simpler times of the 50s and 60s. Each of us has our own 'good old days' period to reference, and that is what is so wonderful about the DQ - time marches on and so does she, but she is still able to transport us back to a slower simpler time than our own present.

David, I presume you know the demise of those mint boxes - seems somebody planted something besides mint in them once, and so the idea 'went up in smoke', so to speak.....

The stern nameboard from the DQ (in two sections) that Doc painted in the 1960's was donated to the Ohio River Museum at Marietta, but is too large to fit into any of the three galleries and remains in a warehouse. There is at least one old DQ pilothouse nameboard on display at the museum, as well as her pilotwheel and Cap Wagner's TALL chair.

I suppose the BIGGEST sign painting that Capt. Doc Hawley ever did was when he painted the NATCHEZ and COTTON BLOSSOM on the side of the Toulouse Street Wharf building, with accompanying signage for the New Orleans Steamboat Company. The old building is now long gone, but Doc, like "Ol' Man River" keeps rolling along!

DQ Mint Boxes

Judy. I remember Toots telling me that they had to stop using the mint boxes for the Mint Juleps in the bar because of health department regulations. The river water splashing on the mint could be a health problem. Too bad because it was a quaint tradition. Back in the 1970's there was a lady in Madison, IN that would come down to the boat with bags and bags of the most beautiful mint. She seemed to think that she had a standing order every time the boat was in port and she wanted to be paid. We continued to pay her as long as I was in the Purser's Office but Toot's who was the Bar Steward at the time complained that we had more mint than we could possibly use and most of it got wasted. It was beautiful mint however. And yes, occasionally, there was a "strange" plant popping up out of the mint.

Yes, I remember the health concerns about the mint. One year they mentioned at L&D 15 that they had run out of mint. I happened to have that growing wild in my garden, so I clipped a bagful and delivered it to L&D 14, much to their surprise. However, I never did have a standing order ready, just that one 'emergency'.

Judy,
Yep, I've heard that explanation too! the water concern does sound very plausible too.
S'
David D.

The Acorns on the Pilothouse in picture #3 were made at Avondale Shipyard during the 197071 Layup and refit. They were affixed with two floor flanges and a short pipe nipple with a piece of galvanized drain pipe between the base of the Acorn and Pilot house roof to give them the bit of extra height they needed.

The "new" Pilothouse name boards were refinished and gold leafed sometime in the mid to late 70's. Lexie did the actual gold leafing. My, oh my did they look good!

About 1980/81 a couple Porcelin enamel signs "appeared". Without photos at hand I can't say exactly how many there were and placement of them, except one was either "drinking water" or "Potable Water". That one was placed on the Sun Deck, Starboard Forward water spigot in the wood box affixed to the bulkhead.

The theory being proposed to the management du jour was that while first cost was rather dear, with some care the sign would last forever and would always look good with an application of a wet cloth. The company was not supposed to get the bill for them, however the sign company called the New Orleans office and told them they were ready and the cost. End of the great porcelin sign proposal.

Quiet is requested for the benefit of those who have retired.

...and of what material was that Quiet sign made? I remember the phrase but not the sign itself.

Stack, inside Officers Quarters visible from Sun Deck. Blue background, white letters.

Ah, yes, I would have seen it as I was storing my lounge chair behind the stack... remember that setup? I have a chair in the flagroom under the NATCHEZ pilothouse to continue that tradition!

Big Cap Tended the Mint Boxes

Tis true that because of health department concerns the mint boxes became decorative rather than a source of perpetual garnish for the juleps. During the BIG Avondale overhaul, the wooden boxes, by then well-rotted, were torn off and it was pondered to rebuild them, but after careful deliberation, it was not to be.

Yes, there were plants growing there other than the flowering members of the Lamiaceae family, but Captain Wagner, who personally tended the boxes, carefully plucked them out without ever knowing they were children of the cannabis clan, instead.

Sounds like something one might see in a Pullman sleeper car.

Weren't the signs painted directly on the insulation around the stack? I believe that there was one at both entrances too.

Yes & Yes. Do you happen to know if they still exist?