DQ signage

I really don't know if the signs are still there. If they are, you would have to tear out a stateroom bulkhead to view them.

Stack replacement

The signage is not there.
The entire inner stack was replaced and the outer steel casing extended to the roof when the sundeck reconfiguration happened.

Dennis
Ch. Eng. Ret. 🙂

Dennis, I hear you're as miserable in your retirement as I am in mine! Instead of wheel wash you left rubber on the UMR recently, I hear... just don't pull a Jim Davis on your cycle!

Just sorry it didn't happen sooner!

Judy, I wish I could take credit for the Bicentennial sign on the bow, but that one, like the boat's name on the engineroom bulkhead, was painted by Lexie. She was really in a class by herself when it came to sign painting . . . the rest of us were rank amateurs. One pair of signs I also enjoyed were painted by another DQ officer who sometimes got out the Grumbacher brushes: Capt. Jim Blum. He painted two two signs, both of which appeared inside the officer's quarters. One had an hand in silhouette with extended thumb and forefinger, beneath which was lettered "To the Egress." The other, in a blue and gray rectangle bore an inscription which I believe Jim adopted from the railroad: "Quiet is requested for the benefit of those who have retired." This gem appeared on both sides of the stack jacket inside the officer's quarters as a reminder to some of the crew, but mostly for any passengers who might be invited to visit the PH in the days when this was still allowed by the USCG. My personal favorite sign was one that Capt. Wagner had me paint on the door of the old gray VW. It was a starboard profile of the DQ with "Steamer Delta Queen" lettered underneath in the same style letters that I used on the outside of the high and low pressure cylinders. I'll see if I can track down a slide of the old VW somewhere in the archives and get Jonathan to post it if possible.

Always Room for a Sign Painter

David-- Didn't you once tell the story that when you were first wanting to work on the DELTA QUEEN, you approached Big Cap looking for an opening, and when he asked if you knew how to paint signs, you immediately jumped at the hint though you had never done any real sign-painting; then after getting hired you had to teach yourself the art? The Skipper opened the door and you leaped at the chance.

Yep. Never had a lettering brush in my hand until that summer, but a guy's gotta do what a guy's gotta do when it comes to landing a job on a steamboat! Another fine lettering job on the boat was by Capt. Jim Blum, on the Lottabull Pilots Award plaque in the PH. It was mounted above and between the window frames forward on the starboard side of the PH all the ways Cap was on the boat, and, I think, survived into the 80s and maybe even the 90s (?) For many years there was a photo of that plaque in the River Hall of Fame at the National Mississippi River Museum here. One thing I always felt was a shame was that Doc's big stern signboard was turned over to the back side and relettered by "professionals" at Avondale for placement on the roof over the steel bracing for the new calliope backdrop. Don't know if that actually was the case, but that's what I was told. Maybe you or Capt. Jim would know for sure.

Doc's Transom Sign

Doc's BIG stern name board was painted on two sheets of galvanized 4X8, thin-gauged steel. When the transom was revamped in the Great Renovation of 1971, these two sections were stowed aboard the boat, and I was given orders to "get rid of 'em", but luckily Betty was pursuaded into donating them to the Ohio River Muse at Marietta, instead. With great fanfare they were given to the museum at our next stop there. However, as noted elsewhere on this thread, the sign has proved too big for display and now reposes in a store room somewhere on the river museum grounds.

Bill Muster did a dandy postcard of Cap'n Doc's sign, and it was a big seller in the DQ gift shop for many years.

Here is one of Bill Muster's postcards sold on the boat in the early 70s. Featured prominently is Doc's nameboard on the stern splashboard. Note how elegant the boat looks in her simplicity without all the geegaws added later on.