Steamships in South America?

[derekwarner_decoy]

OK Thomas...happy 55th from our PD Members 

. ...

world wide....regards Derek

[Eddy Matthews]

Happy birthday for tomorrow Thomas.... 

It does sound like the discussion has prompted a few people to think about posting on other vessels and countries which have been missing, so the end result is we all gain...

[Dinosaursoupman]

Hello PD's,

Although Los Angeles is the #1 container port in the United States, unfortunately she has very little paddlewheel history. I think whenever anyone considers American paddlewheelers, the only thing that comes to mind are those that ply/plied the Mississippi River. But there is a wealth of other vessels than those on the Mississippi.

The Great Lakes offer some amazing vessels. There were virtual floating palaces measuring over 450' that were paddlewheel driven; The Greater Detroit, and the Greater Buffalo for example. Plans are available through the Great Lakes Historical Society.

The West coast and Northern rivers offer different vessels than those on the Mississippi. There are the passenger, rail and car ferries of the San Francisco Bay/Sacramento river Delta. The Delta Queen currently plying the Mississippi is not a true Mississippi riverboat but actually was built to work the Sacramento River between the San Francisco bay to Sacramento. Compare her with the other Mississippi boats and you can see the differences. Her sistership, the Delta King, is on static display as a hotel/restaurant in Old Sacramento. The sidewheel walking beam ferry, Eureka, sits across the pier from the Eppleton Hall. She is the last of her type in the world. Do a search in Flickr and there are a lot of pics available of her.

Both the Columbia River/Portland area and the Puget Sound areas had a tremendous paddlewheeler history. The Bailey Gatzert, for which plans are readily available, is an excellent example of the Columbia River type vessels.

The sternwheelers of the Yukon River, Yukon Territory, Skeena River B.C., and Kootenay Lake, B.C. are less gaudy than the Mississippi Riverboats and less stark than the riverboats used in more tropical regions. An inquiry with Parks Canada has netted me a set of plans for the Yukon sternwheeler Klondike currently on display in Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, Canada. Do a search in Flickr and there are a lot of pics available of her.

Anyhow, my point is; If you want to see more of what is happening or happened in any geographical region, do some research and post it here. The more research posted from different areas, the more people from different areas will be attracted to the site (possibly some with a great wealth of information).

So there's a lot of room to expand our horizons. In reciprocation, I've seen the Woolwich Free Ferries mentioned a while back, and find them (particularly the John Benn) of interest and a possible project in the future. If there are plans readily available let me know.

Eddy, I was wondering if there is an easy way to present a break down (i.e. pie chart) of the membership's region of residence? Starting perhaps with Junior members on since there are a lot of Newbies that register and that's the last their heard of again? I know that there are a lot of other more pressing issues in your life right now so I don't want to place any extra burden upon you, just curious.

Randy the Dinosaur Soup Man

P.S. I didn't mean to derail the coversation from South American paddlewheelers, I was just using North America as an example.

[Roderick Smith]

Here are some from my first South American holiday.
* SS (MV?) Inca (87 m long; 13.4 m beam; 1800 tons).  I don't have its construction date handy (~1904 or 1910?).  I am not sure if it was converted from steam to diesel, or if it was always diesel.  It was scrapped in 1994.  The hull was still at the shipyard in 2003-04 (my fourth South American holiday).
* SS Ollanta: 1930.  We were there to travel on its Wednesday sailing to Bolivia, and it didn't sail.  I reported at the time that service had been suspended; Cook Overseas timetable reported that it was reinstated.  Perhaps I was there during a Christmas - New Year temporary suspension.  Later it was taken over by the Orient Express group for luxury tourist cruises, linked to programs in Cusco and to a special train.  Apparently this is charter only, not scheduled.
* A bus barge.  When we couldn't get the cruise which we wanted, we went by bus around the lake, then across, then on to La Paz.  I can't recall how the  barge was propelled.  I can't recall if we travelled aboard.  When I repeated the trip in 2003-04, there were separate buses on each side, and passengers rode in a classic single-deck small ferry.
Not posted: What I thought was the whole Bolivian navy (a patrol boat); a fuzzy shot of a small passenger ferry.  I believe from later research that the Bolivian navy has five vessels on the lake.

There is a small naval museum in Puno, open 8.00-10.00.  I wasn't there during open hours, so I don't know what it displays.
I doubt that there was any paddlesteamer on the lake.  Preserved boats Yapuri (1862) and Coya (1893) are screw.

Regards,
Roderick B Smith
Rail News Victoria Editor

[Roderick Smith]

Here are some from my 2003-04 holiday.

* Yavari is preserved as a museum; I think it is in cruising order.  There is a lot of information on the web.
* Coya was being done up as a regular cruising restaurant.  Tucked in at the stern is the hull of Inca.
* Ollanta had been done up for the luxury overnight charter market
* Manco Capac is a roro boat, built in Canada in 1970, and assembled on the lake.
* Pluma was typical of the huge fleet of small ferries at Puno, taking tourists to the famous floating reed islands.  This is at one of the islands.  Of greater interest to Paddleduckers would be the reed boat moored adjacent.  These are hand paddled.  Some of them are very ornate.  I did have a short cruise on one.

On this occasion I crossed from Juli to Huatajata (Tiquina?) on a small ferry.  I have no photos (despite years of experience, I had no film in the camera).
I can't recall if it was longitudinal seating or 2+2 transverse seating.  There was a large fleet of such ferries for the crossing, also serving resort islands.  There was also a fleet of larger boats for resort traffic, and a fleet of modern two-deck catamaran ferries for tourist cruises.

Regards,
Roderick B Smith
Rail News Victoria Editor

[Roderick Smith]

The relevant section in Alistair's book covers:
Argentina:
* PS Exequiel Ramos Meija & Roque Saenz Pena.  These are the two Posadas - Encarnacion train ferries.  They were still in use during my 1984-85 tour, but I wasn't there on an operating day.  The replacement bridge was under construction.  The two have been out of use for many years; with valuable fitting stripped from the boilers and engines.  These are reported well elsewhere in Paddleducks.
Brazil
* SS Ary Parrieras: naval
* SWPS Benjamin Guimarães: Tourist cruises from Pirapora on Rio São Francisco.
* TST Laurindo Pitta
* MV Jhuliana (formerly SS): This was used in the film 'Fitzcarraldo' (which I have on VHS tape).
Chile
* SS Chucao: Tourist cruises on Lago de Villarica
* SS Collico: Tourist cruises from Valdivia.
* SS Enco: under restoration
Mexico
* SL African Queen
* SS Catalina
Paraguay
* TSS Paragua: naval
Peru
* SS Ollanta

I am trying to raise the enthusiasm and organisation to cruise on SWPS Delta Queen this year.
I have left it too late to be on a 2.5 Cincinnati - Kentucky Derby cruise.  This might cut into my budget for a 2009 South America, but 2010 is certainly a prospect for Brazil.

Regards,
Roderick B Smith
Rail News Victoria Editor

[Hankwilliams]

Hello, dear friends and neighbors,

thank you very much for the birthday regards, I have enjoyed it!

Specially to Roderick: MV Jhuliana was used in "Fitzcarraldo" together with a second exactly similar vessel in normal size, this was build only for the film production. This "model" as I know had no propulsion.
Werner Herzog's fascinating diary about making the film in the jungle of Brazil, titlet "Die Eroberung des Nutzlosen" (The conquest of the useless) will now be translatet into English. Which date it will be availiable, you can inform at Werner Herzog's Film home page.

On my opinion the book is of equal literary quality as Conrad's "Heart of darkness" and other books of this author.
When it was published three years ago, I red it nearly uninterupted from beginning to end.

Regards

Thomas

[Bierjunge]

Looking for more information on the wood-burning sternwheeler “Benjamin Guimarães”, I found an interesting site with old pictures of other boats of the Rio São Francisco:  http://www.velhochico.net/index_arquivos/Page%20354%20E.htm
My portuguese isn't good enough, but the entire site seems worth spending some more time. Some more pictures of the surviving “Benjamin Guimarães” are at http://www.velhochico.net/index_arquivos/Page%20354%20C%201.htm and http://www.velhochico.net/index_arquivos/Page%20354%20C.htm

Regards, Moritz

[Hankwilliams]

Hello,

I became enthusiastic about this numerous important resarches.

When I startet this topic 10 days ago, I first was a little bit disappointed, because I presumed a lack of interest about this item in the first two days.
But it`s completely different, the last days have demonstrated the great interest and even far reaching knowledge about this theme - specially througth Rodericks and Moritz`s resarches.

The number of views about this item speaks for itself - I think it is good for all of us,
specially to me, I got important informations which I hope can be transposed in a live steam model project.

Regards

Thomas

[AlistairD]

Hank

I can send you a copy of Directory of the World's Steamships. the cost is £19.99 plus postage.

I can take a credit card payment

I think your best place to buy it in Germany would be Christian Schmidt in München, or WEDE Fachbuchandlung in Hamburg

[Hankwilliams]

Hello Alistair,

thank you very much. I've ordered your book by Christian Schmidt.

It will be availiable by mid of May.

Regards

Thomas

[andrei]

Hello guys,

In Brasil I discovered german side paddle boat called Blumenau, located in Blumenau city
SC.


I will take some pics of boat .

[Bierjunge]

Although the title of this thread leads to South America, we've been discussing here South-East-Asian steamboats as well, so what.
I've just found the site http://belleindochine.free.fr/Laos1900.htm, showing in the first part some most remarkable pictures of steamboats being transported Fitzcarraldo-style on temporary rails through the jungle around rapids!, and the intersting picture of a very tropical sternwheeler:
One thing I cannot explain on this picture: It looks as if the hog posts and hog chains are not based on the hull, but stand besides the hull in the water. Any ideas what this might mean?

[Harold H. Duncan]

Hi Moritz,
Thats a great site, even though I can't read the french. Has helped me with some other non-paddle research.
As to your photo, I think you will find the hogbrace is not for the Paddle steamer, but a raft (possibly of bamboo matt) which the steamer is sitting on, but this is fully submergedby the weight of the boat. Note the mark of the waterline along the hull, and that the paddle floats are only partly in the water. Could even be similar to the frame they transported it over the rail in other photos.
Good find, and for me most interesting
Kiwi

ps
hows this for a french military paddlesteamer from Indochine mid to late 19th century - cool

[derekwarner_decoy]

Hi PD's....Kiwi........you may need Google as your Internet Explorer assistant but......

go to the WEB site http://belleindochine.free.fr/Laos1900.htm

Left click & swipe over Le Laos vers 1900 at the top of the page
Right click, >>>Page info >>>>Translate to English

= The Laos circa 1900 & the hole page is translated