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The Str. PORTLAND was built at Portland, Oregon, in 1947 by Northwest Marine Iron Works for the Port of Portland as a sternwheel towboat to replace the previous Steamer Portland which was built in 1919. The hull was steel constructed and it supported wood upper decks; cabin deck, texas deck and wheelhouse. She was decommissioned in 1981. Operated by two independent river tug boat companies, Western Transportation and Shaver Transportation, she served her entire working life as a Portland Harbor tug. In 1989 she was adopted by the Oregon Maritime Museum as it's premier exhibit and still serves the Portland waterfront in that capacity. She is fully operational and periodically steams-up. Length: 186.1'; beam: 42.1'; depth of hold: 9'; draft: 5.5; gross tonnage: 928; net: 733. Engines: 26"dia-9' stroke; boiler pressure: 250 pounds.
Directions:
Oregon Maritime Center & Museum
113 S.W. Front Ave.
Portland, OR 97204
Phone (503) 224-7724
Operation Hours: 11 am - 4 pm, Fridays, Saturdays
The museum's website is unavailable at this time: www.oregonmaritimemuseum.org
Satellite picture and map at Google Maps:
Str. Portland
Majestic America Line is offering overnight cruises with several boats on the Columbia, Willamette and Snake Rivers. While the EMPRESS OF THE NORTH spends the summer season in Alaska and does the Columbia River only in the winter season, the QUEEN OF THE WEST and the COLUMBIA QUEEN are serving the Columbia River all year long. While none of the boats are steamboats, they combine the comfort and tradition of the historic paddelwheelers with modern technology and great hospitality.
Contact:
Majestic America Line offices are located in Seattle, while there is an additional operational office at St. Louis for the company's boats on the Mississippi River system, the DELTA QUEEN, MISSISSIPPI QUEEN and AMERICAN QUEEN (see St. Louis).
Majestic America Line / American West Steamboat Company
2101 4th Ave., Suite 1150
Seattle, WA 98121
Reservations: (800) 434-1232
www.majesticamericaline.com
Launched in 2003, the EMPRESS OF THE NORTH is the first sternwheeler to sail Alaska’s Inside Passage in over 100 years. In the summer season, the Empress's main destination is Alaska. In the spring and autumn, she joins the Queen of the West and the Columbia Queen and cruises the Columbia, Snake and Willamette Rivers. The Empress of the North is run mainly by the stern paddlewheel, but has additional Z-drives for higher speed and difficult navigation situations.
In 1995, the year of her launch, the QUEEN OF THE WEST reintroducing the tradition of sternwheelers to the Columbia, Willamette and Snake Rivers. At the time, the Queen of the West was the first paddle wheeler to sail the Columbia River in 85 years. The QUEEN OF THE WEST is designed to hull dimensions and paddlewheel configuration of the sternwheeler Portland, which was built in 1947 at Nichols Marine Iron Works, Portland, Oregon. The steam whistles come from an unknown steamer of the 1800s. The helm wheel was the original early-1900s wheel from the Seattle fireboat Duwamish.
The COLUMBIA QUEEN was built in 2000 for the Delta Queen Steamboat Co. at Leevac Shipyards, Inc. of Jennings, LA, and was completed at Cascade General, Inc., in Portland, OR. She was built in the style of many historic river boats. The hull originates from a former casino boat. The COLUMBIA QUEEN has a troublesome history, first being the fourth of the Delta Queen Steamboat Company "Queens" for just one year until the company filed for chapter 11. Later she was sold to Great American River Journeys, who ran her just for one season until the company went bancrupt. Now she is part of Majestic America Line, which is also a reunion with the other three Queens far away on the Mississippi River system, the Delta Queen, Mississippi Queen and American Queen.
