Saturday, July 26, 2008

The last of the real steam-paddle boats retires

The "Delta Queen", the last operating proper steam-paddle boat in the U.S., is to go retire - sad news for historians of technology and boat lovers. The boat owners are unable to get a Congressional exemption from some of the navigation rules that apply to both river-going and ocean-going ships (the Delta Queen has some inherent structural problems due to its wooden superstructure). The Delta Queen has a modern fire sprinkler system, and has never caught on fire. Since 1904, Congress has been ignorant of developments in boat safety .

2 comments:

Nori said...

The Delta Queen does not have structural problems. It is a hundred percent structurally sound. The only problem is that as a traditional paddlewheel steamboat, it has wooden decks. The boat goes on the rivers and never should have been included in the Safety at "SEA" law. It has always been exempt from that law. We just want to renew the exemption.
For more information about the Delta Queen, please log onto Steamboats.com

Ze Kremen said...

You should publicize this fact. Too many good sound ships are being sent to the graveyard.

I know that the wooden deck ships give that romantic, sailing smell to the whole ship. It is like this on the battleships.