Topic starter
07/06/2012 1:07 pm
I ran across a couple of pictures this week that were taken while in Pierre Part, LA, where the MQ was disassembled and scrapped. These shots were taken at the home of the gentleman that brokered the deal to scrap the boat. These were taken on 12/21/11, just before Christmas.
As you see here, a few things "lived on" and now have a recycled purpose.
The first two are what remains of the paddlewheel boards, now serving time as a new deck floor on a flat bed neckover trailer.
The last two are section of railing that now serve as railing on the gentleman's front porch. Take note of the solid brass insert in the columns. I was able to claim two sections of railing as well. Very heavy steel with brass turnings.
Topic starter
07/06/2012 1:42 pm
MQ remnents #2
Second picture of the railing below.
Although not steamboat related, while we were in Pierre Part, LA picking up the mermaids and signage, we met a few of the guys that are in the show Swamp People (show is filmed off the canals where the MQ was scrapped). In fact we spent the night in the neighborhood where a couple of the guys live. Very nice folks and certainly a different way of life from what I grew up with here in Southern IN on the Ohio river.
We met one of the gents on the local boat ramp just as he was pulling his boat that afternoon, having caught a mess of swamp rats( they call them neutral rats). The story we got was, the folks that own Tabasco had a problem with the rats eating the vegatation that serves to keep the saltwater from infiltrating the fresh water. I guess the saltwater kills their pepper plants. So they placed a bounty on the rats. For every dead rat, the hunters get paid $5.00. In order to prove their catch, they must produce the tail. The rest of the animal goes back in the water to feed the gators. As you can see, this guy made a good living that day.
I thought you would find it interesting and hopefully you are not offended by the picture.
This is a very small canal and town and it is amazing that they were able to even get a boat the size of the MQ there in the first place. The boat made a huge impact on the people there to. Many we talked to were saddened to see the destruction. We heard several other stories while there and most were impossible to substantiate.
I met one guy at a tire store that claimed to have a couple of the large letters that came off the side of the boat. He wanted them because it was the first letter of his last name.
We were also told that the hull was not scrapped at that yard and that it was moved in the middle of the night. Was told it had something to do with people not getting paid.
When I asked where the hull went, I could not get a straight answer. No one there could, or would tell us where the hull went to be cut up.
Does anyone here know, or perhaps it is still out there somewhere?
07/06/2012 6:40 pm
MQ bucketboards
The gentleman with whom Doc and I talked had taken several of the bucketboards and had made a wheelchair ramp at his house for his wife. So the MQ does live on in good ways... He had known nothing about the MQ before she arrived, but he was so impressed with the number of people who had come there to look/ pay their respects. This same sentiment was expressed by the guy at the dock at the Harvey Canal too.
Topic starter
19/06/2012 3:41 pm
a few more pictures
Here are a few more pictures that I acquired this weekend of the MQ's final days.
