My wife and I were in Madison, Indiana a few weeks ago looking through some of the antique stores when I saw a framed picture of the Mississippi Queen in a store front window.
Upon closer examination I found it to be the original outboard profile (48"x18") drawn by the original architect. Along with the outboard profile, it had the original deck plans, including the hull and sun deck, with all crew and machinery spaces. Each deck plan had a brief description of what was on that deck and how it was decorated, down to the color of carpeting and furnishings.
Also included was all the vessel information: Length overall, length over monkey rudders, length between perpendiculars, molded breadth, overall breadth, height above waterline (stacks down and erect), fuel capacity, potable water capacity, engine specs, tonnage (net and gross), weight of engines, weight of paddlewheel/pitmans, crew/passenger capacity, auxilliary generator specs., fuel consumption estimates and owner/builder/architect information.
Unfortunately it was a Sunday and the store was closed when we were there and I wasn't able to buy it. Well, I have been at Clifty Creek power plant here at Madison for two days waiting for our barges to unload and I called the antique store, the owner agreed to bring the picture to me at the security gate at the power plant. I couldn't get off the boat, so I sent a check with the crew of the tug here and am now the proud owner of a very unique piece of MQ history. I have never seen anything like this before, but it has a lot of technical information and original layouts from when the boat came out of the shipyard...very cool.
Upon closer examination I found it to be the original outboard profile (48"x18") drawn by the original architect. Along with the outboard profile, it had the original deck plans, including the hull and sun deck, with all crew and machinery spaces. Each deck plan had a brief description of what was on that deck and how it was decorated, down to the color of carpeting and furnishings.
Also included was all the vessel information: Length overall, length over monkey rudders, length between perpendiculars, molded breadth, overall breadth, height above waterline (stacks down and erect), fuel capacity, potable water capacity, engine specs, tonnage (net and gross), weight of engines, weight of paddlewheel/pitmans, crew/passenger capacity, auxilliary generator specs., fuel consumption estimates and owner/builder/architect information.
Unfortunately it was a Sunday and the store was closed when we were there and I wasn't able to buy it. Well, I have been at Clifty Creek power plant here at Madison for two days waiting for our barges to unload and I called the antique store, the owner agreed to bring the picture to me at the security gate at the power plant. I couldn't get off the boat, so I sent a check with the crew of the tug here and am now the proud owner of a very unique piece of MQ history. I have never seen anything like this before, but it has a lot of technical information and original layouts from when the boat came out of the shipyard...very cool.
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