1959 on the DELTA QUEEN
Posted 06-10-2008 at 05:35 PM by Travis Vasconcelos
Hello All,
Today I have for you a look into the not too distant past. In years past the daily newspaper onboard the DELTA QUEEN was much different than what you see aboard her in a more modern era. Things were simpler and a little more home-spun.
I am going to paste to this blog entry a daily paper from the first day of a Kentucky Lake cruise back in 1959. Since my scanner would not accept a legal sized document (I have to work on that) so, I recreated it in a Microsoft Word document and was very careful to make sure I recreated it faithfully both in word, punctuation, lay out (however, I am sorry to say it didn't keep its properties when pasted here). It is (would have been) exactly what the original was, save for the look of typing…for the original document was hand typed and copied on a mimeograph machine before being distributed at the evenings entertainment.
My collection of these includes the whole week cruise and as time allows I will post more of them to my blog so you can take a look back into the days of the summer cruises to Kentucky Lake and the lifestyle of the DELTA QUEEN passenger of yore.
As you look over the list of Officers aboard the vessel, many familiar names appear.
Interesting to note the lack of hourly activities, no timed dinner announcement or show announcement.
I particularly liked the addition of the states where the passengers hailed from. What an interesting conversation starter that could be today!
Of course, the inaccuracy in the machinery construction location was one we heard to be fact for many years. We all know that to be different now. It did sound good, didn’t it?
As I read this I mentally took a journey on the DELTA QUEEN and figured what it would be like to have been there during this cruise. I could imagine myself just relaxing on deck and watching the water foul and passing scenery. Imagine taking in all the activity of a busy river port terminal with gantry cranes moving products to and from barges. Watching and waving at the crews of passing towboats. Becoming enthralled, as if for the first time when locking through one of the wicket dams (the DELTA QUEEN encountered 17 of them on this particular cruise!). Then off to the Orleans Room for a sumptuous meal and great entertainment with Happy Briscoe and Harmon Mize.
In many ways, it is not too different today, is it?
Enjoy today’s entry…the 23, August 1959 Daily paper from the DELTA QUEEN.
ABOARD THE SUNDAY
S.S. DELTA QUEEN AUGUST 23, 1959
__________________________________________________ _____________________
SHIP’S PERSONNEL
Paul Underwood – Master
Fred Barrows – Chief Engineer
Albert Kelly – Pilot Harris Underwood – Pilot
H.M Carr – Mate Cal Benefiel – Asst. Eng.
C.C. Hawley – Mate Fred Crum – Asst. Eng.
Darrell Foell – Purser Jack Cleary – Chief Steward
Mary Greene Cleary – Social Director L.D. Poor – Carpenter
Myra Mize – Clerk Harmon Mize – Musician
Happy Briscoe – Souvenirs, Music Bob Wilmes – Mixologist
Bruce Edgington – Watchman Howard Calhoun – Maintenance
Bill Menke – Watchman Fleming Moore – Striker
John Dobbs – Watchman Quincy Wakefield – Striker
Plus a crew of approximately
60 maids, waiters, pantry,
Galley, dish help, engine
Room force, porters, and deck
crew.
WHAT’S MY NAME?
That is the question that we ask about the little newspaper this morning. So afr, it is a nameless waif. We would like you to help us give it a title for the remainder of the cruise. Put your suggestion in the box at the Purser’s Office today. Do this before 8:30 tonight. This evening, we will select judges, who will choose the best name for the cruise paper. The person who names the paper will receive a prize. Put on your thinking caps, and join in the fin. Perhaps your title will be the winner. A timely tip – be sure to save copies of the little sheet as they will mean so much to you after the cruise is over. No doubt they will bring back memories of the interesting time you had. Send some to the folks at home, too. It saves long letter writing!
WELCOME, EVERYONE!
Last night at the get-together party Mary Greene Cleary, along with Mrs. Letha C. Greene, President of Greene Line Steamers, welcomed all of you aboard. All of the crew echo their welcome and will try to prove through service and entertainment that their welcome is sincere. The S.S. DELTA QUEEN is not your home, so rest, relax, play – do anything your heart desires. That is just what you would do at home, you know. Here, however, there are none of the worried and work that come up at home. Every member of the boat is at your service, and will try to see that you get the most of what you like best.
As you may remember, Mary announced that there are 17 stated of the U.S and the District of Columbia represented on this cruise.
They are:
PENNSYLVANIA
KENTUCKY
OHIO
GEORGIA
MASSACHUSETTS
VIRGINIA
INDIANA
MICHIGAN
ILLINOIS
KANSAS
MARYLAND
NEW YORK
WISCONSIN
MISSOURI
CALIFORNIA
TEXAS
WEST VIRGINIA
WASHINGTON D.C
Welcome all of you! Such an interesting representation promises to make a very pleasant cruise!
Facts about the S.S. DELTA QUEEN
Fabricated – Clydebank, Scotland
Launched – Stockton California in 1926
Engineer in charge of design – James Burns
Steel Work – Krupp works of Germany
Tonnage – 1618 tons
Length of hull – 250 feet
Overall length – 285 feet
Width – 58 feet 2 inches
Paddlewheel – 28 feet in diameter 19 feet wide, 28 buckets, each 28 inches
Original owners – California Transportation Company. Operated between San Francisco and Sacramento until 1939, when taken over by the U.S Navy. After the war, sold to Greene Line Steamers, Inc., of Cincinnati by the Maritime Commission. Maiden voyage for the Greene Line in June of 1948 to Muscle Shoals, Ala.
The S.S. DELTA QUEEN is the ONLY overnight passenger boat on the Ohio, Mississippi, and Tennessee Rivers and their tributaries. She is in operation approximately 8 to 10 months of the year.
ROUSTABOUT JINGLE
When I dies, do bury me deep,
Put a jug of ‘lasses at mah feet,
Put a hunk of cawnbread in mah han’
So I can sop my way to de Promised lan’
CARDS, ANYONE?
If any desire to find card partners, they can sign on the paper that will be on the board next to the Purser’s Office. Put down your name, room number, and favorite game, and see who else is interested in your brand of cards.
Today I have for you a look into the not too distant past. In years past the daily newspaper onboard the DELTA QUEEN was much different than what you see aboard her in a more modern era. Things were simpler and a little more home-spun.
I am going to paste to this blog entry a daily paper from the first day of a Kentucky Lake cruise back in 1959. Since my scanner would not accept a legal sized document (I have to work on that) so, I recreated it in a Microsoft Word document and was very careful to make sure I recreated it faithfully both in word, punctuation, lay out (however, I am sorry to say it didn't keep its properties when pasted here). It is (would have been) exactly what the original was, save for the look of typing…for the original document was hand typed and copied on a mimeograph machine before being distributed at the evenings entertainment.
My collection of these includes the whole week cruise and as time allows I will post more of them to my blog so you can take a look back into the days of the summer cruises to Kentucky Lake and the lifestyle of the DELTA QUEEN passenger of yore.
As you look over the list of Officers aboard the vessel, many familiar names appear.
Interesting to note the lack of hourly activities, no timed dinner announcement or show announcement.
I particularly liked the addition of the states where the passengers hailed from. What an interesting conversation starter that could be today!
Of course, the inaccuracy in the machinery construction location was one we heard to be fact for many years. We all know that to be different now. It did sound good, didn’t it?
As I read this I mentally took a journey on the DELTA QUEEN and figured what it would be like to have been there during this cruise. I could imagine myself just relaxing on deck and watching the water foul and passing scenery. Imagine taking in all the activity of a busy river port terminal with gantry cranes moving products to and from barges. Watching and waving at the crews of passing towboats. Becoming enthralled, as if for the first time when locking through one of the wicket dams (the DELTA QUEEN encountered 17 of them on this particular cruise!). Then off to the Orleans Room for a sumptuous meal and great entertainment with Happy Briscoe and Harmon Mize.
In many ways, it is not too different today, is it?
Enjoy today’s entry…the 23, August 1959 Daily paper from the DELTA QUEEN.
ABOARD THE SUNDAY
S.S. DELTA QUEEN AUGUST 23, 1959
__________________________________________________ _____________________
SHIP’S PERSONNEL
Paul Underwood – Master
Fred Barrows – Chief Engineer
Albert Kelly – Pilot Harris Underwood – Pilot
H.M Carr – Mate Cal Benefiel – Asst. Eng.
C.C. Hawley – Mate Fred Crum – Asst. Eng.
Darrell Foell – Purser Jack Cleary – Chief Steward
Mary Greene Cleary – Social Director L.D. Poor – Carpenter
Myra Mize – Clerk Harmon Mize – Musician
Happy Briscoe – Souvenirs, Music Bob Wilmes – Mixologist
Bruce Edgington – Watchman Howard Calhoun – Maintenance
Bill Menke – Watchman Fleming Moore – Striker
John Dobbs – Watchman Quincy Wakefield – Striker
Plus a crew of approximately
60 maids, waiters, pantry,
Galley, dish help, engine
Room force, porters, and deck
crew.
WHAT’S MY NAME?
That is the question that we ask about the little newspaper this morning. So afr, it is a nameless waif. We would like you to help us give it a title for the remainder of the cruise. Put your suggestion in the box at the Purser’s Office today. Do this before 8:30 tonight. This evening, we will select judges, who will choose the best name for the cruise paper. The person who names the paper will receive a prize. Put on your thinking caps, and join in the fin. Perhaps your title will be the winner. A timely tip – be sure to save copies of the little sheet as they will mean so much to you after the cruise is over. No doubt they will bring back memories of the interesting time you had. Send some to the folks at home, too. It saves long letter writing!
WELCOME, EVERYONE!
Last night at the get-together party Mary Greene Cleary, along with Mrs. Letha C. Greene, President of Greene Line Steamers, welcomed all of you aboard. All of the crew echo their welcome and will try to prove through service and entertainment that their welcome is sincere. The S.S. DELTA QUEEN is not your home, so rest, relax, play – do anything your heart desires. That is just what you would do at home, you know. Here, however, there are none of the worried and work that come up at home. Every member of the boat is at your service, and will try to see that you get the most of what you like best.
As you may remember, Mary announced that there are 17 stated of the U.S and the District of Columbia represented on this cruise.
They are:
PENNSYLVANIA
KENTUCKY
OHIO
GEORGIA
MASSACHUSETTS
VIRGINIA
INDIANA
MICHIGAN
ILLINOIS
KANSAS
MARYLAND
NEW YORK
WISCONSIN
MISSOURI
CALIFORNIA
TEXAS
WEST VIRGINIA
WASHINGTON D.C
Welcome all of you! Such an interesting representation promises to make a very pleasant cruise!
Facts about the S.S. DELTA QUEEN
Fabricated – Clydebank, Scotland
Launched – Stockton California in 1926
Engineer in charge of design – James Burns
Steel Work – Krupp works of Germany
Tonnage – 1618 tons
Length of hull – 250 feet
Overall length – 285 feet
Width – 58 feet 2 inches
Paddlewheel – 28 feet in diameter 19 feet wide, 28 buckets, each 28 inches
Original owners – California Transportation Company. Operated between San Francisco and Sacramento until 1939, when taken over by the U.S Navy. After the war, sold to Greene Line Steamers, Inc., of Cincinnati by the Maritime Commission. Maiden voyage for the Greene Line in June of 1948 to Muscle Shoals, Ala.
The S.S. DELTA QUEEN is the ONLY overnight passenger boat on the Ohio, Mississippi, and Tennessee Rivers and their tributaries. She is in operation approximately 8 to 10 months of the year.
ROUSTABOUT JINGLE
When I dies, do bury me deep,
Put a jug of ‘lasses at mah feet,
Put a hunk of cawnbread in mah han’
So I can sop my way to de Promised lan’
CARDS, ANYONE?
If any desire to find card partners, they can sign on the paper that will be on the board next to the Purser’s Office. Put down your name, room number, and favorite game, and see who else is interested in your brand of cards.
Total Comments 3
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All typed by hand and "run off" on a mimeo stencil - probably by Mary Greene Cleary. And how nice of President Letha Greene to greet the passengers on the first night out.
Thanks for taking the time to do this. Wesley |
 
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How wonderful would that be if a potential new owner of the Delta Queen comes up with the idea of a few "60s revival" or "old fashioned packet boat" cruises per year where passengers are being put back 50 or 100 years in time, doing everything the old style! - well probably except from non-private bathrooms and such ;-)
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I can see it now, thanks for the trip back and for re-starting my imagination.
Don |
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