Some DQ History Questions...

Hi, Bruno:
Read your questions Re: the period photos of the DELTA QUEEN and I'll share what I 'think' I know.

Pg. 15 bow-on photo of the DELTA QUEEN is a dandy and It came from the collection of Judy Patsch. It was taken at the CALIFORNIA TRANSPORTATION CO. dock in Sacramento, California. Don't know if it was dated or not. It shows the C.T. CO. big pier and huge warehouse there. The drop down to the water and the deck of the DK/DQ was considerable and they had an elevator at one time to lower/raise cargo and automobiles for shipment. *The "triangular little building" on the bow of the boat was additional passenger housing the company built for "Single men only" with some 42 berths. The price for passage was for a long time 50 cents each. Meals could be purchased extra in the main dining room. I won't go so far as to say the rooms were 'skid row' but in those days single men, by custom, were kept separate unless they had the money to purchase higher priced cabins above. In the 1920-1930 era there was still a need for cheaper rooms to house laborers and immigrants traveling up the Sacramento to various mills and the big agricultural areas. The boats on California waters were never fitted with a swinging stage as the custom here. Freight/autos were loaded/unloaded along the side ocean ship style. At time the railings on the top decks were swung back and passengers arrived via a gangway on what was termed then 'Saloon' and upper 'Obervation deck.' Tidal levels played a part in this. John Burns, son of old Jim Burns who built the boats, related to me that the Asian [Chinese/Japanese immigrants] trade wasn't treated all that politely by today's 'Politically correct' standards. That's another story for another day.

Pg. 18 showing the distinct stairs or 'ladder' in nautical terms up to the stern of the top deck was no doubt installed in the World War II days for access by Navy sailors etc. There was no roof railing around but they needed access to various lights and fixtures up there and to post 'naked eye observers.' One of the three tall slightly raked masts showing in old photos was wired for Navy radio communications and clearly shows in the stern view of the DELTA QUEEN transiting the Panama Canal as seen on Pg. 92 of Fred Way's 'The Saga of the DELTA QUEEN.' That same radio mast was taken down from the roof behind the plothouse and used as the temporary jackstaff on the bow for the trip from New Orleans to Cincinnati and thence to Dravo in 1947.

I'll defer to others with long memories Re: the cracked shaft as per your above question.

Cheers,
R. Dale Flick

Dale,
Thanks for your insight. Thanks also to you and Judy for the great pictures.

A follow up question...was the room on the bow directly connected to other occupied areas of the boat? It's doubtful, but did the single men that were housed in that room on the bow access their rooms up from the boiler deck? Or maybe through the side corridors from the car storage area/Orleans dining room? They didn't let the passengers walk out on the bow back then, did they? Doesn't look like there is a whole bunch of room to walk there.

The DQ's railings on the cabin deck are still swung back with a small gangway from time to time. At least that's they way the company has done it at the Baton Rouge "paperclip". Very interesting design what with the mahogany(?) railing being hinged upward on huge brass hinges, while the knee mesh is slid horizontally out of the way...still works pretty good after, what is it, 79 years of use?

Thanks again, I always enjoy your posts.

Bruno

Bruno:
Read your 'follow' and the question. If the 'single men' in the deck house on the bow had the money they would walk across and up the main stairway to the cabin deck. Meal plans were either al la carte or full plan with meals included. If the night run up from San Francisco--or the other way around--was a short haul until they disembarked many wouldn't eat at all. No doubt a number of the 'single men' were traveling on the cheap. Then again if a guy cleaned up, had decent clothes and could pay for the meal he'd go up to the cabin. I'd make an analogy that these 50 cents rooms were 'Tourist class' or 'Steerage' at best. Society aboard a steamboat or ship was a microcosm of life ashore.

As late at the 1920s here the big L&C LINE did the same with cabins and meal service on the cheap aboard the big CINCINNATI and her sister the classic QUEEN CITY. Full rooms with meals were $5. 'Going deck' was a throw-back to the passengers who crowded on the lower boiler decks in the old days around the boilers, freight and livestock being shipped.

Cheers,
R. Dale Flick

These photos were taken at the Howard Steamboat Museum yard. I was made to understand that the shaft is indeed the original from the Delta Queen. As to the rest of the wheel, I don't know if it is a fabricated replica or the real deal. I'm sure there's others on this board with more info than this. Anyone want to chime in?

Hi, Bruno & Jon:
I'm 'fuzzy' about the paddlewheel now mounted at the Howard Museum in Jeffersonville, IN. Keith Norrington would know in a jiffy and will be back on line tomorrow. Alan Bates and others could also enlighten us.

I do recall hearing, that when the shaft broke on the DELTA QUEEN, there was a gentleman taking his daily constitution walking around the deck and happened to look over and see the shaft cracked. He was no fool and sounded the alarm PRONTO! Capts. Don Sanders, Bob Reynolds etc. may know the full story. Even the best of steel after all of those years of rolling, rolling, backing, heading would have developed stress cracks.

Now, I've one. I pulled down Stan Garvey's 'KING & QUEEN of the River' book to refresh my memory of the World War II days. Pretty interesting stuff. No doubt the Navy crew aboard were at times armed and had armanents. John Burns related to me he recalled "A cabin on the boat used to store sidearms, rifles--no doubt a machine gun or several thrown in." The DK/DQ from the get go were equipped with magnetic compases for navigation on San Francisco Bay and its upper reaches. I've often wondered if the boats ever had guns mounted on deck? Yet, from what I recall, deck guns are a touchy thing needing solid footing and mounting. The wood/canvas decks on the boats would have been an issue. The Japanese threat after Pearl Harbor was an ever present one with fears of 'mini subs' sneaking along the coast and into San Francisco Bay itself. The Navy mounted lookouts on the very top deck during drills and alerts etc.

Cheers,
R. Dale Flick

bug?

While we're on the subject, I seem to recall during my time on the Mother Ship some discussion about there having been a "boat" vehicle on board for use when in port to run errands. It supposedly was a Beetle kept on the bow.

Urban legend or fact?

Thanks
Paul

Its a fact !!! In fact more autos than just the VW has graced the DQ deck

Now you've got me going...I've read about the V-Dub, orange wasn't it? And didn't it float in the Ohio for a while after THE unfortunate experience, in where was it, Paducah? I can identify with the driver, my first experience with a stick shift was a nightmare, too. What ever happened to that VW, is it still providing iron to the Ohio's gamefish?

Other cars? I have a hard time imagining a VW beetle fitting on the stage. And I can't imagine any other brands of cars even beginning to fit, as they were all bigger than a Beetle. And the thought of trying to turn a car, ANY car around on the DQ bow deck, brrrr, instant goosebumps.

I can hope...are there pictures, of any car on the bow/stage of the DQ that posters could share? I vaguely remember seeing a black and white with the VW parked on the bow facing the starboard side...

Bruno

Now is when we need Capts. Don Sanders and Bob Reynolds to enlighten us. I even seem to remember in my grey fog of aging memory something about a TV truck. Maybe Don and Bob will step in with "the rest of the story"

The shaft and flanges are from the original Delta Quuen paddlewheel. The wood parts were added at the museum. Arrangements were made to get salvaged parts from the Belle of Louisville's wheel, but some house builder put kindling on the wheel instead.

The shaft in the back yard of the Howard Steamboat Museum is the original paddlewheel shaft from the DQ, which cracked and was removed in 1980 at Jeffboat. For some years the shaft was close to the back door of the mansion, but was later moved to the current location. Because visitors often asked "What IS that thing?" and it was hard for them to "see" how the sternwheel was constructed, some pseudo arms and bucket planks were added at the top. We are pleased to have the shaft and it is, by far, our "heaviest" exhibit!

Indeed! I recall at least one Volkswagen (bright orange and I think there was also a yellow one later) that was carried on the bow and used to run many an errand. I remember one safari, at Madison, Indiana, with Capt. Jim Blum at the wheel and yours truly in the passenger seat -- with my lap stacked high with boxes of bakery goods. We sped down the hill and across the stage onto the bow, praying that the brakes held and we didn't end up in the Ohio! I don't remember exactly, but I have a foggy recollection that the Coast Guard later decreed that no cars could be carried on the DQ or MQ.

In earlier Greene Line days, I remember when Mrs. Letha Greene would sometimes have her car put aboard the boat at Cincinnati so she could be on the boat for the first night of the cruise and then debark at Louisville and drive home. I remember Capt. Wagner having his car aboard once and also when then Mate Bob Reynolds put his new car aboard at Memphis.

Crew Car on the MQ

While we are on the subject of company cars on the DQ. The MQ was equipped with her own car when she came out in 1976. It was a small white Chevy about the size of a VW. I hesitate to say the exact model because I am not positive. Possibly a Chevette or something like that. My recollection is that both vehicles were removed the same year with the excuse of insurance problems. (Or maybe it was that no car maker could make a car that floated long enough to get to shore)

Here is what I know (and what I THINK I know!) about the cars on the DQ. They were indeed Volkswagens. The first one was a cream-colored VW Bug, and I *think* it may have belonged to Capt. Wagner. Capt. Sanders can jump in here and enlighten us. Anyway, this is the car that went over the side. A Deckhand by the name of Vic Stattmiller (sp?) was asked to move the car from one side of the bow to the other. He was not familiar with a stick shift or his foot slipped on the clutch, but he ended up going over the side at Memphis. Frankie & Johnnie's Boat Store (Now Economy) used their grocery boat to pick Vic up before the car sank in the swift current below the Memphis bridges. I'm guessing this happened in about 1972 or 73. The next VW was orange, and it was definitely owned by the company. It had STR. DELTA QUEEN painted on both doors. This is the car that Keith remembers and rode in. It was used for errands to town or what ever needed to be done that you might need a car for.

As for a car fitting on the stage, you would be surprised at how large a vehicle can fit on that stage! Yes, we had a LARGE news truck on there at one time, and several other vehicles. A VW may be small overall, but it is not that narrow. There was really a little room to spare, if you can believe it.

Next time you are on the DQ's bow deck, look up at the overhead.....there are sprinkler heads there, but not the type that are heat-activated. This is a sprinkler system that is used on ferry boats, manually operated in case there is a fire on/in a car. This was installed so the DQ could carry a few cars....the CG used to be (and probably still is) very strict about what you can and can't do with cars, because they carry that stuff that is SOOOO dangerous - gasoline!!!! I am unaware that the USCG put the kibosch on the practice of carrying car(s); I thought it was the company.

When the MISSISSIPPI QUEEN first came out, she had a white Chevy compact that the company bought. I went to the dealership in Cincinnati with Bob Waring to pick it up. After delivery to the Cinci landing, Capt. Gabe had me paint STR. MISSISSIPPI QUEEN on the side. I was only able to do one door in the allotted time, and as far as I know the car never did have that lettering job completed.

As Keith mentioned, other cars were brought aboard from time to time. I had my car on there at least twice, and there had been some others. We put Virginia Bennet's car on the bow one year for a race to help "keep her head down". Mrs. Greene used to get on the boat at Cincinnati and ride down as far as Louisville on a regular basis just to mnake sure verything was going okay. She'd get off at Louisville and drive back to Cinci, leaving the DQ to go on her way.

Bob, do you remember the full-sized Buick that was on the stage in Natchez for an ad photo shoot? They had Capt. Wagner in the driver's seat leaning out the window and waving. I was up on the Texas taking pix of them taking pix. That would have been late '70s. Also, one of the more infamous cars on board belonged to Sharon Wright, who worked in the office and later in the DQ gift shop. This is one of Doc's favorite stories. To shorten it, Sharon was riding overnight to Louisville. She had a small sports car, MG?, on board. Sharon imbibed a bit too much that night and was out like a light. Capt. Wagner, and I wouldn't be surprised if our Capt. Don wasn't involved in this too, had them move Sharon's car into the dining room for breakfast time. When Sharon came down, she was horrified to find it there, and they told her she had driven it in there herself, but probably couldn't remember doing it. Capt. Wagner was quite a prankster, as has been previously reported on here. And Capt. Wagner had a motor scooter on board in 1974. I have a pix of him overwhelming that little vehicle as he was riding through the grounds at Houmas House on New Year's.

Judy, I do not remember the Buick ad, but I am not a bit surpirsed. Nor am I surprised about Sharon Wright's car! I had never heard that story before, but don't doubt it for a minute!

Those who have not been associated with the DQ as long as we have (and others way before us), cannot imagine the stuff that went on. And it was not anything that passengers would necessarily have objected to. It was much more of a "family" (for lack of a better word) atmosphere then, for EVERYONE aboard. I'm sure it is still that way for the crew, but it encompassed the whole boat way back when, and the passengers loved it. It was part of the experience and it obviously impressed a lot of folks favorably. Too bad those days are gone for good.

DELTA QUEEN Bad Luck for Bugs

Great rundown, Capt. Bob. I just want to say that the DELTA QUEEN was bad luck for Volkswagens. Besides the one Mr. Stadtmiller and his bride-to-be cruised the Memphis harbor aboard, at least three other VWs met an untimely fate because of the QUEEN. To wit:

* At Cincinnati. A most delightful young woman parked her VW bug on the sloped Cincinnati landing one day in the early '70's, and then walked uptown to work. Around noon, as I was standing gatewatch, an unusual sight directed my attention to the landing. The cutie's VW had broken free, somehow, and was careening down the steep grade; went into the river, floated over and hit the hull of the DELTA QUEEN, then sunk stern-first. The authorities came and had a wrecker pull the car back onto the landing where they left it. That evening, when the lovely lass came back for her car, she did not notice that her vehicle was parked in the opposite direct that she had left it and that the driver's side door was on the downhill slope of the Public Landing. So as soon as the dolly put her key into the lock and turned it, the door flew open with the force of several hundred gallons of Ohio River water behind it; nearly drowning the thunder-struck maiden in a miniature, but effective, tsunami river wave.

* At Marietta. Soon after landing the DELTA QUEEN at the Marietta city front, a deckhand rushed into the pilothouse and informed me that I had just "Cut a Volkswagen in half." Sure enough, a VW had recently been stolen by some local boys looking for some fun joy-riding about town, and when their play was over, they committed the bug to the murky depths of the Ohio River where it rested until I bisected it with the steamboat.

3. On Kentucky Lake. Somewhere on Kentucky Lake, the Interstate Highway sweeps down a long grade and crosses over the Tennessee River on a bridge whose name I do not recall. As the DELTA QUEEN approached the bridge, I could, from my roost out on the port wingbridge, see cars slowing down to a creep to watch our beautiful steamboat as we lined up to pass beneath the channel span. Just before we were nearly to the bridge, I saw a Volkswagen stop right above where we would be ducking beneath in a few minutes more. Then to my horror, I noticed a huge semi tractor-trailer flying down the approach to the bridge in the same lane where the VW was parked, and by the way the rig was speeding I knew that the driver was also watching the QUEEN and not the road in front of him. A collision was imminent, and all I could imagine was that in a few more seconds a Volkswagen would be hurtled airborne and thundering down atop the DELTA QUEEN. So I rushed inside the pilothouse and warned the pilot of the impending disaster as the gut-wrenching sound of brakes and metal ripping metal came from the high steel over us as the QUEEN slid beneath where surely people were possibly dying just several feet above. Thankfully, the VW was not vaulted over the bridge and onto the DELTA QUEEN, and I never heard what happened to the hapless folks aboard the ill-fated bug.

DQ cars

Here is the orange VW. This pix was in August 1978. That's Chief Steward Henry Mitchell and I believe Dave Martin. We were at the Cannelton landing? Ted????. It seems someone had put the linen napkins into a garbage bag rather than a laundry bag. When this was realized, we pulled in, put the VW and these two ashore. So they are returning from dumpster-diving. I'm sure Watchman Keith remembers that folly... and the Buick ad pix was taken in Natchez in April 1976. You can see Capt. Wagner leaning out the window. The 'band' members weren't! That's Cruise Director Terry Severns, bartender Tony Mintz and ???.... yes, we were lucky to be around pre-megacompany. Of course, everyone has his/her 'good old days' on the boat, but I think today's passengers would find hard to believe some of the fun we had in those days... just as we can't comprehend the Hokey-Pokey, Down in the PawPaw Patch days preceding our DQ experiences. But things were so much more informal then, and less 'programmed'... and the Captain was in charge of the boat and schedule!

DQ cracked shaft days

Here are some pix of the 1980 month without a paddlewheel DQ... The first two I took in St. Louis. That's the IMOGENE IGERT towing the DQ around. Keith took the picture of the 'swimming pool' at Louisville. When you stood on the top deck and looked down at the void, that's what it looked like!

Wonderful stuff...thanks everyone!

Bruno

Thanks Judy for the photo of the Cannelton landing. I am going to save that one. That was the location of the old ferry boat landing that was already out of business when the photo was taken. I certainly remember that day for sure. It was Chief Purser Henry Mitchel and Housekeeping Steward David Martin that had to retrieve the linens from the dump. They stopped by my parents house and my mother fed them lunch. I don't remember what she managed to put together at the last minute but I remember what she COULD have served and did not. She had some left over chicken and dumplings but did not want to serve these special guests left overs. Little did she realize how much both Henry and David would have appreciated the "left overs" AN GOOD OLE HOME COOKIN'. They both loved chicken and dumplings and were very disappointed later when I told them what they missed out on. Boy we are really dredging up the memories now! Great times.

Yes, Ted, you are right. The MQ's car was a white '76 Chevy Chevette.

I remember C.W. Stoll once stating that the deckrooms on the heads of both the DELTA QUEEN and DELTA KING were an afterthought. According to him, they were not on the boats' original drawings, and were added after both were afloat and being trimmed out. He said, that as built, both boats were notoriously heavy on the stern and that the deckrooms were added in an attempt to bring up the sterns of the boats.

Aha, my memory was pretty good... I didn't have that location marked, but thought it was at Cannelton. It seems to me that we had several 'misadventures' that cruise, besides the napkins... I just located my log book from my DQ cruises, and here is the lowdown on the napkin deal: It happened on Wednesday Aug. 16, 1978. We arrived at Evansville at 7:30AM for a service stop. We left about 10:30AM. After departure it was discovered that the napkins were thrown out in the garbage at Evansville, so Henry, Dave, and the VW were put off at the Twin Bridges (where are they?) to recover them. At 7:45PM we put in at the landing at Cannelton to pick them up. They had had the napkins drycleaned. Other notations from that St. Louis to Cincinnati cruise: we were scheduled to stop at Ste. Genevieve, but the barges at the quarry prevented us from landing, so we headed to Cape Girardeau instead (wonder through how many layers of administration that decision would have to pass these days?) On Tuesday we entered Uniontown Lock at 12:30AM and there were over 50 people there to watch us at that late hour. Wednesday was the napkin fiasco, followed by a foggy Thursday AM which didn't stop our progress. However we were delayed leaving Louisville that afternoon, waiting for an ice cream delivery. Had you placed a to-go order, Keith???? I highly recommend keeping a log, however minimal, on trips. Its great fun to look back at years later, and it helps explain pictures too, which you don't label because you just know you'll never forget!