Delta Queen
2007
(Saratoga Model Shipyard SMY-25a)
- Type: River cruise boat
- Displacement: 3,360 tons
- Dimensions: 285 x 58 x 11.5 ft.
- Machinery: Reciprocating steam engines, sternwheel paddle, 2,000 IHP = 10.4 knots
- Passengers: 174
- Crew: 75
- Builder: William Denny & Brothers, Dumbarton, Scotland, and California Transportation Co, Stockton, California, 1926
- Service: One of two sternwheelers, Delta King and Delta Queen, whose hull, first two decks, and engines were built in Scotland, then shipped in pieces to Stockton, California, for final assembly. Used for passenger and auto ferry service between Sacramento and San Francisco until 1940, when a new highway put them out of service. Requisitioned by US Navy for transportation duty in San Francisco Bay from Dec 1941 to Aug 1946 as USS Delta Queen, YFB-56. Purchased Aug 1946 by Greene Line Steamers of Cincinnati, Ohio, and towed via Panama Canal to Pittsburg, PA, to refit as cruise ship for Mississippi River and connecting inland waterways. Numerous ownership changes since then. She made river cruises and excursions from 1948 to 1966, when the new Safety of Life at Sea law was passed, requiring all passenger accomodations on US ships be steel rather than wood as on Delta Queen. Successful lobbying campaigns won successive two-year exemptions until 2008, requiring Delta Queen to cease carrying passengers at the end of the 2008 season. Designated a US National Historic Landmark in 1989.
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