Topic starter
08/03/2008 9:01 pm
While looking thru some steamboat-related items on Ebay I found this most unusual article...a Christmas Dinner menu for the DELTA QUEEN and DELTA KING dated 25, December 1940.
I am wondering just what we have here because it was my understanding the DELTA QUEEN and DELTA KING were leased to the Navy at this time having completed their public service on the 29th of September of the same year.
Could this be something done for the reservists aboard her for the Holiday by River Lines? If so, whe was classified as barracks at this time and did not use her christened name.
Any ideas folks?
08/03/2008 10:15 pm
DELTA QUEEN, 1939-41/'Christmas Menu.'
Travis, the chronology of the final years of the DELTA QUEEN can be confusing...a little. The Great Depression hit the company hard followed by reorganization under RIVER LINES [*I have the corporate papers from those years in my files here]. 'Night boat' trade had nearly fizzled out on the Sacramento but held on during the travel season with long winter layups. The 1939 World's Fair [GOLDEN GATE INTERNATIONAL EXPOSITION] opened Feb. 18, 1939. The KING & QUEEN experienced something of a renaissance during that time ferrying people to the great fair along with running more day-light excursions to supplement revenue--one reason we see more photos of the two boats in the full light of day with decks crowded in those years. September 29, 1940, was the last day of the great fair and also that of the two boats. *The U.S. Navy had already chartered the boats over the winter as in the past several winters for barracks space related to the building of nearby defense plants. December 7, 1941 plunged the United States into the malestrom that had already descended upon Europe and England since 1939. A veil of tears mixed with human blood descended over most of the civilized world as we knew it. A new era for the QUEEN & KING would emerge after 1946. Old Jim Burns, builder of the two QUEENS, remained remained involved with their lives in California from their birth in Scotland until the end of World War II. Well, what to I know?
Cheers,
R. Dale Flick