Some DQ History Questions...

oops! My memory wasn't good enough to remember I had already hit the 'submit reply' button!

So when the DQ was Greene-ized at Dravo, those deckrooms were gone, but both the Cabin and Texas deck bows were extended. But that apparently wasn't enough weight to compensate, since her stern was always too low until the new hull???

Yes, even when we had "trying times", those were some great days on the DQ with some mighty fine people! And, as Judy said, it's fun to go back and read our log books, for some of those events would otherwise be long forgotten.

Judy
The twin bridges that you could not identify are probably the two bridges from Henderson, KY to Ellis Park Race Track and Evansville. There are some camps along the river at that spot so there must be some kind of road in and out from the river bank. I do not know if the is some kind of boat ramp to get the VW up the hill. Otherwise that would be an adventure to write about in itself.

The Twin Bridges are also known as the Dade Park Bridges. On the Indiana side, there is a fleet office there just below the bridges, and just above are a number of "camps" that probably also have a boat ramp. On the Kentucky side, there is a fuel dock and fleet office, but I am unsure of any boat ramp. Was Weasel's father Mr. Wiesling involved in any of this? He often helped out bringing laundry to or from the boat at Newburgh.

Another DQ laundry mishap

Another laundry incident just occurred to me, and this involved another .orger, Capt. Jim Blum. The officers' laundry was taken off in Dubuque to the cleaners. It was to be delivered the next day in Davenport. Some of it was, some wasn't. Seems the truck driver forgot to secure the back doors and some of the laundry fluttered to the highway enroute to Davenport. Some lady stopped and picked it up and since it was marked for the DQ, she delivered it to the boat in Davenport. I believe for her trouble Jim gave her a grand tour of the boat, and perhaps lunch on board?

Even the MQ, young upstart that she is, has sunk a car and, i suppose, could rightfully paint a Subaru on the side of the pilot house. In Memphis, probably 1991 or so, the MQ was docked at the Wolf River upper landing site, foot of Court St., in Memphis. I noticed a car parked on the stern line early that morning... around lunch time a huge wind came up and parted the head line, which was tied around a tree. The MQ swung to port quite a bit, stage swinging like mad, and the stern line parted & catapulted the Subaru into the Wolf river... she sank by the stern. When the owener arrived around 5 PM, Capt. Keeton and I met with him... he seemed more interested in getting a vessel tour than anything else. On the DQ side of things, I seem to remember someone riding a Harly onto the boat and "cruising" the Orleans Room but darned if i can remember who or when...

Judy Patsch;2243 wrote: 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!

I posted in the old forum about the orange VW....

I almost bought one that was for sale nearby a few years back...almost identical, same orange color! At one time I thought it would have been fun to show up in Dubuque, PDC or LAX with it stating"look at what I restored off the floor of the Mississippi"!!!!!!

Wasn't Captain Ted on that Harley, was it?

[QUOTE=Keith Tinnin;2258]Even the MQ, young upstart that she is, has sunk a car and, i suppose, could rightfully paint a Subaru on the side of the pilot house.

And the AQ can claim a taxi in what could have been a tragic incident in Cincinatti. One of our servers, Kevin (forgot last name) was in a cab on the landing. The driver's gas pedal got stuck and the thing went roaring through the baggage area, past the stage and into the river.

One of our officers dove in and exticated Kevin and the driver. Kevin was injured pretty badly and it could have been much worse.

Paul

The Flying Bug

It can now be revealed, but in the early 1970's, the VW on the bow of the DELTA QUEEN was often the scene for flight lessons. The interior of the bug was about the same size as the cockpit on a Cessna 150 or a Piper P-28 Cherokee, and the emergency brake doubled for the handle for the flaps. Deckhand Eddie was my student, and we went through all the procedures for engine starts, run-ups; taxi into position and hold, flaps sets, clearance acknowledged, carb heat hot, throttle full, little more right rudder, now ease back on the stick, as the Volkswagen left the deck and climbed to pattern altitude.

The area where the twin bridges cross the Ohio at Henderson is where the tornado struck in November, 2005 just as the Str. NATCHEZ was arriving at Evansville and narrowly missed being right in its path, had it not been for some quick thinking and maneuvering. Here those hardy folks, many of whom were homeless, brought their big beautiful steamboat up the Mississippi and Ohio on the very uncertain venture of a late fall tramping trip following the devastation of hurricanes -- and almost ended up being the victim of a deadly tornado! Another chapter in the annals of river history and a testament to the Str. NATCHEZ and her stalwart crew!

I believe they were mopping the bow deck, and Vic Statwhatever was moving the VW to the other side, after one area had been mopped. The bug skidded on the slick deck and went overboard. I thought they rescued it and got it ashore. I had my '69 Chevelle on there once. It was always said that you could get a wide-track Pontiac on the Stage. Vic Tooker had an antique vehicle of some sort on there. It was about the vintage of the DQ.

Since I was there when it happened, and I can actually still remember, here's the details of the cracked shaft: After lunch, I had obseved that the Chief Engineer and the Mate were standing on the aft end of the sun deck watching the wheel, and so I stood there and looked at it too. Neither answered my question as to why they were doing that, so I repaired to my room to rest. I woke up in a while and noticed that the boat had stopped. I was informed that the paddlewheel shaft had broken and we were waiting for a towboat to take us to Louisville. It is true that a passenger first reported the problem, but there was knowledge of something being amiss befor that. That is why the Chief and Mate were standing on the stern of the sun deck looking at the wheel. I had looked at it too, but none of us saw the crack at that time, so maybe it just hadn't quite become visible. Or we weren't looking at the right spot. No one knows why it cracked. Mis-alignment of the engines, hitting something, wear and tear? The way I see it, those of you who are working on the DQ now should be keeping an eye on the existing shaft. Just in case.....

Even though the DQ lacked what made it go for a month, it was a fun time. As others have mentioned, it wasn't just business as usual. In spite of orders that no one board the towboat, it wasn't long before a distinct pathway could be seen from the DQ's midship door, going across the barge to the towboat. Not only crew, but passengers were known to have paid a visit to the towboat and even dined on towboat food (which could easily rival that served on the DQ, and surpass that served to the DQ crew.) For the towboat crew, that little experience was pure entertainment.

the cracked crosshead also in 1980

And of course there was the cracked crosshead towing earlier that summer, done by none other than Shipyard Sam on the Beatty. We passengers were notified the trip wouldn't start in St. Louis, but rather in Cape Girardeau. It didn't start there either. We were bussed to Cairo. The current was too swift to make good enough time upriver. The repaired crosshead arrived during the night at Cairo and I believe Bill Kelly and Pete Feilhauer did the honors of reinstalling it. We were towed up the Ohio by Shipyard for a day, and then they tested it and we were on our own again. I believe we stopped in Paducah to let Cappy Louden off and then we proceeded down the lower Miss to NOLA, right Lexie or Bob?

Hi, Frank & gang:
Interesting point Re: the forward 'deck house' on the DELTA QUEEN/DELTA KING relating to weight and ballast. John Burns related that when the DELTA KING was launched first at Stockton, Capt. C.A. Anderson, chief of C.T. Co. on the Sacramento, and old Jim Burns agreed not to frame up the forward deck house until after the KING was in the water being outfitted and superstructure added. Old photos show the QUEEN on the ways there with no forward housing in evidence. Pictures of the company's older Str. FORT SUTTER do show a similar deck house at the bow with nearly identical hooded air scoops. Likewise, there was a discussion once that a considerable amount of pig iron had been added to the QUEEN in the bow and at various other points. No doubt Capts. Don, Bob, Lexie could enlighten us on that. When John Burns would talk about the DK/DQ he invariable used the common term from out there, "The DELTA ships." Very seldom did I ever hear him used the term 'steamboat' in reference to the vessels running from San Francisco to Sacramento and Stockton. John, as a young man, was a licensed steamboat fireman often working for the company and his dad. In later years he formed his own marine engineering and machine company in Oakland, California serving big commercial and U.S. Navy surface ships and submarines.

The deck house was not in evidence when the QUEEN was being 'crated up' at Antioch, California in 1947 for the long ocean journey back here and on to DRAVO as Judy mentions. On rivers here there would be need for the swinging stage, something not used on the Sacramento. The shortened [snubbed] bow decks on both the DK/DQ, FORT SUTTER and other western boats was a common design. Capts. Tom Greene, Fred Way and others knew the extended forward decks were a must for tourist service her in addition to giving a more traditional Ohio/Mississipp River appearance.

Cheers,
R. Dale Flick

That tow job was aboard either the CLARE E. BEATTY or the BEN FRANKLIN, both of Cap'n John's Beatty's Naval fleet. Mmmmmmm... Offhand, I can't recall that trip too well, but memories of other times when we had the DELTA QUEEN in tow are more vivid. Like the time I chased Captain Lexie across what appeared to be moonlit, flooded cornfields. It was rumored that she had a deckhand out on the head of the stage opening fence gates to let us pass. That was fun.

Vic and the VW

I like this version of Vic and the VW:

http://www.steamboats.org/talkshop/messages/14329.html

My memories of the crosshead incident aren't as sharp as it was a fairly minor hiccup. As for the moonlit cornfields, I am drawing a complete and totally irreversible blank.

On the other hand, I recall that John Beatty and Co. played a part in my first trip as pilot, during which Murphy's law was invoked from Paducah to Cincinnati. Actually, Murphy's Law was in effect even before the DQ got to Paducah, where several of us had been waiting for the boat hours and hours.

Someone should engrave Murphy's Law on a bronze plaque and hang it in the Forward Cabin Lounge. This law has probably helped to make many a DQ trip memorable, if not a great source of comic relief.