Operating US paddlers

[Paulrjordan]

..and talking of contemporary paddlers, I was surprised to find out
just how many are still operating in the US. Check this little
website gem:

http://www.geocities.com/twink2k2/stacks1/page.html

PJ
Victoria, BC Canada

[Joe E Brown]

That's not nearly all the paddle boats in the U. S. I'm surprised
the site didn't have the American Queen listed. She's our largest
sternwheeler afloat at 418' x 88'. There's also a lot of "Pool" type
sternwheelers that are still working pushing barges and crane flats
like the laura J, Major, and lady Lois.
Here's some interesting sites
http://www.hspsi.org/
http://members.tripod.com/~Write4801/riverboats.html#BOATS
http://www.steamboats.org/

If you've ever been interested in building a real one, here's a good
place to start
http://www.usawaterways.com/cgi-bin/netforum/sternwheel/a/1

[Alistair Deayton]

That site only lists the participants in the Tall Stacks Festival at
Cincinnati.
There are only a handful of true steam sternwheelers still in operation
DELTA QUEEN
MISSISSIPPI QUEEN
AMERICAN QUEEN, although these two have diesel thrusters as well
BELLE OF LOUISVILLE at Louisville, Kentucky
NATCHEZ at New Orleans
JULIA BELLE SWAIN at La Crosse
all on the Mississippi and tributaries
ELIZABETH LOUISE at Sacramento
PORTLAND at Portland, Oregon, although she sails very infrequently
GRACEFUL GHOST on Caddo Lake, Texas
LIBERTY BELLE at Disney World, Florida
MARK TWAIN at Disneyland, California (both of these go on a fixed track with
no steering)
MINNEHAHA on Lake George, New York
and SUWANEE at Dearborn Village, the Henry Ford Museum, near Detroit
There was also a sternwheeler named SHAWNEE PRINCESS at Grand rapids, Ohio.
She was noted as for sale in 1996

The above are the only operational passenger-carrying sternwheelers in the
USA. There may be some other small ones used as private yachts and there are
a multitude of diesel-powered fake Mississippi ones all over the world
Alistair Deayton

[B Worden]

One small addition to Alistair's information: Mississippi Queen is propelled by her sternwheel, but she does have thrusters for movement sideways. MQ's engines were built new for her from plans for a powerful set built in the 1930s for a towboat.

American Queen, on the other hand, can't get out of her own way using her underpowered steam-driven stermwheel; she is dependant on diesel propellers for propulsion assistance as well as thrusters for docking, etc.

I also have to mention the excpetion to Alustair's quite accurate statement about sternwheelers in Europe. There was a modest-sized sternwheeler in Germany years ago; she had quite pretty moulded hull, not at all the flat-bottomed sort of the Mississippi steamboat. She was, I believe on the Elbe; I think I saw her photo on a web site that also included the steamer Hugo Basedow. If I can find the URL I'll post it.

It's worth reminded folks that in the heyday of the Mississippi system, the sternwheeler was the lower class steamer. All the prestigious packets were sidewheelers, i.e. Natchez and Robert E. Lee. Sternwheelers were, I believe, happier in very shallow water, and that's the kind of river one normally would find them on. But sidewheelers were faster. Neither would be a joy to steer as compared to a propeller ship, as there was no propeller wash acting directly on the rudder(s). That's why paddle steamers have such big rudders as compared to propeller steamers.

As it happens, almost all the surviving American paddle steamers are sternwheelers; but the President, still afloat but not in service, was built as one of the last (or the last) bug sidewheel packet.

Bill WOrden

[KC6OLD]

What is the paddlewheeler in daily service (summer only) on the Columbia
between Bonneville, Cascade Locks and Stevens? Wash. It goes under "The Bridge Of
The Gods"
Dave