Ever wonder what could have been?
Posted 06-26-2008 at 08:14 PM by Travis Vasconcelos
Hello All,
This installment is about what could have been.
Many years ago there was a magazine called Passenger Boat News. Of all the periodicals I have subscribed to this one was my favourite. Each bi-monthly issue had the latest information in the Excursion Boat industry. They even predicted the Gaming Boat industry and the profound effect it would have on the Excursion Boat industry.
With each issue you know who was building what and where. I would always pass possible clients on to David Morecraft to see if we could get some calliope business out of a new boat.
One caught my eye in 1990 and I read with speculation of a new client for a calliope. The boat sadly enough, was never built....well for that client. Later it was built and had 2 sister vessels. However, not for the client it was originally planned for, nor the business.
As you look at the proposed CITY OF NEW ORLEANS, notice the few and subtle changes this design incurred in the conversion over to what became the EMERALD LADY, DIAMOND LADY, and GOLDEN LADY (PAR-A-DICE). They lost their skylight trunk, pretty main stacks and scape pipes, steam whistle on the front stb'd corner of the pilothouse, pilothouse dome, and the direct electric drive (in favour of a hydraulic drive and twin screws).
On a positive note, they ushered in the Gaming Boat era in a style and class (along with the former Streckfus Str. PRESIDENT) it otherwise would have lacked.
As I look over this design again some almost 20 years later I notice details which made the it so beautiful. The grace of the head coaming, the stack lanterns (How much you all wanna bet the USCG would have NEVER allowed them?), search lights out on a passenger deck,....details missing in their subsequent brethern.
In time, the Gaming Boat became a box with little attention to the artful lines the marine architect gave boats in the era of wooden hulls. This was a time where hog chains and rigging held the graceful lines tight and proud.
The newest "boat" on the scene will carry 13,000 passengers. It will go nowhere. Even if it did go anywhere, it is too big to clear bridges...or the navigation channel for that matter. However, hundreds of thousands of "passengers" will board it and pay no heed to what it is....for they are there for something different....the possibility of riches which do not exist.
What if the gaming laws had stuck to the original Hollywood inspired ideal? What if they all had to look like a packet boat? What if they all had to sail? What if they all had deck chairs, concession stands, steam whistles, and calliopes?
Do you think they could have survived?
On the DELTA QUEEN I used to have a talk called "Entertainment Comes To The River, the story of the Showboat and the Excursion Boat". The last slide in the presentation was one of the BELLE OF CINCINNATI, showing how one of the Gaming Boats was reformed to go back to the Excursion Boat industry, for which she was designed. It was at this point I used to dispel the Gambling myth about the boats Hollywood assumed were huge casinos on the river.
In retrospect, perhaps in some strange way I was answering the question I have proposed here. What if?
~Travis~
This installment is about what could have been.
Many years ago there was a magazine called Passenger Boat News. Of all the periodicals I have subscribed to this one was my favourite. Each bi-monthly issue had the latest information in the Excursion Boat industry. They even predicted the Gaming Boat industry and the profound effect it would have on the Excursion Boat industry.
With each issue you know who was building what and where. I would always pass possible clients on to David Morecraft to see if we could get some calliope business out of a new boat.
One caught my eye in 1990 and I read with speculation of a new client for a calliope. The boat sadly enough, was never built....well for that client. Later it was built and had 2 sister vessels. However, not for the client it was originally planned for, nor the business.
As you look at the proposed CITY OF NEW ORLEANS, notice the few and subtle changes this design incurred in the conversion over to what became the EMERALD LADY, DIAMOND LADY, and GOLDEN LADY (PAR-A-DICE). They lost their skylight trunk, pretty main stacks and scape pipes, steam whistle on the front stb'd corner of the pilothouse, pilothouse dome, and the direct electric drive (in favour of a hydraulic drive and twin screws).
On a positive note, they ushered in the Gaming Boat era in a style and class (along with the former Streckfus Str. PRESIDENT) it otherwise would have lacked.
As I look over this design again some almost 20 years later I notice details which made the it so beautiful. The grace of the head coaming, the stack lanterns (How much you all wanna bet the USCG would have NEVER allowed them?), search lights out on a passenger deck,....details missing in their subsequent brethern.
In time, the Gaming Boat became a box with little attention to the artful lines the marine architect gave boats in the era of wooden hulls. This was a time where hog chains and rigging held the graceful lines tight and proud.
The newest "boat" on the scene will carry 13,000 passengers. It will go nowhere. Even if it did go anywhere, it is too big to clear bridges...or the navigation channel for that matter. However, hundreds of thousands of "passengers" will board it and pay no heed to what it is....for they are there for something different....the possibility of riches which do not exist.
What if the gaming laws had stuck to the original Hollywood inspired ideal? What if they all had to look like a packet boat? What if they all had to sail? What if they all had deck chairs, concession stands, steam whistles, and calliopes?
Do you think they could have survived?
On the DELTA QUEEN I used to have a talk called "Entertainment Comes To The River, the story of the Showboat and the Excursion Boat". The last slide in the presentation was one of the BELLE OF CINCINNATI, showing how one of the Gaming Boats was reformed to go back to the Excursion Boat industry, for which she was designed. It was at this point I used to dispel the Gambling myth about the boats Hollywood assumed were huge casinos on the river.
In retrospect, perhaps in some strange way I was answering the question I have proposed here. What if?
~Travis~
Total Comments 0
Comments
Recent Blog Entries by Travis Vasconcelos
- Dubuque-Built Diesel Excursion boats (01-02-2011)
- Ever wonder what could have been? (06-26-2008)
- Mississippi River Flooding, memories and thoughts. (06-22-2008)
- How it all began....OR.....How I found my way to the river. (06-17-2008)
- Lifted information from the Steamboatin' Times (06-13-2008)
