Mississippi Queen memories

Mississippi Queen memories

Grand Staircase on different levels

Dining Room and Grand Salon

Solarium and Gift Shop (where is Marilyn Melton??)

Paddlewheel Bar (upper and lower levels)

Paddlewheel Bar and Center Bar (located between Grand Salon and Dining Room)

Lower level movie theatre and World's Largest Calliope!

Engine Room (Dennis Shenk???)

Employee cafeteria and Geo Metro kept on the bow of the boat for transportation (Chip Smith!)

Drydock days at Todd and Avondale Shipyards

Mississippi Queen paddlewheel

Fore and Starboard views of Mississippi Queen

Mississippi Queen memories

MQ and DQ at Natchez. Whatever happened to The President?

Thanks for those early photos of the MQ in her original glory. I did not take a lot of photos in those days so I don't have a good record of what the boat originally looked like. Seeing your photos brought me rocketing back to 1976. The photos brought back memories of tiny little details of what it was like to live and work on "The biggest steamboat that ever was afloat." As well as "The first steamboat to be built in 50 years." I remember the decor was best described as stark. Lots of brass and glass with gallons of beige and white paint. It think we all said back then that this boat needed some color. One thing that I don't miss was all the Porter staff gathering every day at 1:00 P.M. to polish all the brass hand rails on the Grand Staircase and Aft Staircase with Brasso!

Ted, you are so right about the stark look of the MQ. I suspect this is why some of us never cared for that boat, even though there were attempts later on to make it into something it really was not.

I remember boarding the Mississippi Queen on its grand debut in Cincinnati in 1976. I was most interested in its having what was billed as the world's largest calliope, built by the Davis Calliope Works. It's main whistle was of the same design as the whistles on the calliope.

Being already somewaht familiar with steam whistles, I was surprised by the paper thin annular slits on the bowls of the whistles and just how thin the bowls were. This would explain the relatively low output of the main whistle for its rather large scale-it was starved for steam. I remember a diesel locomotive coming by with air horns much louder than the Queen's whistle. I was very disappointed. The Delta Queen's single 10" Lunkenheimer sounded much more authoritive.

Rather than changing the main whistle itself as was done, I would have recommended machining new bowls for the existing one, as this whistle could have sounded absolutely spectacular using deeper bowls, larger inlets and wider annular slits for improved steam flow. A well scaled 3 bell chime can always outperform a single bell chime, which they replaced it with.

Yeah Ted and Bob ya'll are so right about the stark color and the company should have had stock in Brasso. I am proud to say that I was the first one to paint that yellow trim they decided to try in '77. We tried it around the windows on the bow first and then went around the rest of the boat. Tim thank you for those pictures and I dont know where Mel was either. How long were you on the boat? I'm like Ted, the ones of the crew mess and I can see the crew pursers office and I remember that aft crew mess and the little crew laundry right across from the crew pursers office and then the aft crew quarters which I lived in 052 back then. Yeah and I had forgotten about the Center bar.

MQ pix

Thanks Tim for all those pix. We didn't get the MQ on the Upper Miss until 1979, and the first time I saw her was in 1978 in Natchez - Jim Blum was Master then, right Jim? Where was that original Gift Shop location, in one of the galleries between the dining room and Grand Saloon, or where the library ended up? Did the whole crew stay aboard during the 'visits' to Avondale and drydocks?

Judy....ever since meeting you in New Orleans last month aboard the 'Natchez', who knew I'd have such a re-newed interest of the Mississippi Queen and would be posting pics and blogs on this website! Of course, I've been in touch with Ted Guillaum, as we were both porters that first year. I've also heard from Dennis Shenk, from engineering, who then connected me with Martha Razor, who worked the Pursers Office. She's in one of the first pics of the lobby, along with Mary Jo Smith. I did a google on Chef Reed Groban, and have been talking with him also as he resides in Arizona. I have a lot more pics of the crew that I plan to post shortly with hopes of pulling more fellow steamboaters out of the woodwork! The gift shop was located next to the Grand Staircase in between the Grand Salon and Dining Room. Marilyn Melton (Mel) was the purser in charge. What stories I have of her! While the MQ spent so much time in drydock, our 'skeleton crew' was housed in a variety of low-rent hotels up and down the West Bank. Only once, were we treated lavishly, when they put us up in the Marie Antoinette Hotel on Toulouse St. in the Quarter. Stay tuned to more pics and stories!

Tim Miller;14451 wrote: Employee cafeteria and Geo Metro kept on the bow of the boat for transportation (Chip Smith!)

Neat pics! That car pictured is a 1st generation Chevrolet Chevette!

My grandfather & brother were on a maiden voyage of the MQ, Louisville to NO... The Midwest Riverboat Buffs crowd saw my brother's photo album of that trip a few summers ago.
I don't remember the interior much, as the one & only time I was on it was for about 15 minutes...and of course I got lost!

Pete, don't feel bad about being lost on the MQ. I can still remember the first week before we left Jeffboat and how I was lost most of the time trying to get from one ond to the other. Passengers on the MQ had the same problem. I never got to cruise on the American Queen but I assume that it probably takes passengers a couple of days, given her size before they can find their way around deck as well.

Wow Tim I remember Martha and Mary Jo. I recognized them earlier but couldnt remember the names. Were you around for Christmas Holly or Liz Semple.

I remember them both.......AND Grover Moberley, Tom Murphy etc.... Stay tuned.... I have another collection of pics of all of the employees that first year coming soon.....