Belle of Louisville
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The Belle of Louisville is a historic stern wheel steamer . The owner and operator is the city of Louisville , Kentucky , USA. The ship travels the Ohio River and is moored at Louisville's central dock during the May to October shipping season. Originally built under the name Idlewild by James Rees & Sons Company in Pittsburgh for the West Memphis Packet Company in 1914, it first sailed the Allegheny River . The construction consists of a solid steel shell with an asphalt deck. With a resulting draft of only about 1.5 m, the ship is able to navigate almost every body of water around Louisville. In 1972 the ship was added to the National Register of Historic Places and has been a National Historic Landmark since 1989 .
history
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e2/Belle_of_Louisville_salvage.jpg/220px-Belle_of_Louisville_salvage.jpg)
The Idlewild served after its entry as a passenger ferry between Tennessee and West Memphis, Arkansas . Freight, primarily cotton , wood and grain, was also transported from the start. In 1931 she was transferred to Louisville and served as a ferry between Fontaine Ferry Park and Rose Island. During the Second World War , the ship was converted to push tank barges and used as a United Service Organizations troop recovery ship. After the war it was sold to J. Herod Gorsage and renamed Avalon . During the next few years, the ship sailed the Mississippi River , the Missouri River and many smaller rivers and anchored in many ports. In 1962, the ship, badly in need of repair, was auctioned and renamed Belle of Louisville . On April 30, 1963, after extensive repairs, the Belle sailed for the first time. The first voyage was also the beginning of a unique, traditional steamboat race between the Belle and the Delta Queen , which has taken place annually since then ( The Great Steamboat Race ).
On April 10, 1972, the steamship was added to the National Register of Historic Places as a construction . Since June 30, 1989 it has the status of a National Historic Landmark .
In 1997 the Belle of Louisville partially sank at its anchorage, and a former crew member was later convicted of sabotage . The quick reaction of the team prevented worse. The Belle was lifted, repaired and was ready to go again a few weeks later. Mark Doty has been captain of the Belle since 2007 and holds the official title of Master of the Fleet .
technology
The ship is 48 m long and 11 m wide and can accommodate 750 passengers during the high season. It has a broad bow and a flat hull without a keel . The stern has round indentations for the three oars . The Belle has three decks: the main deck, which houses the propulsion machinery, a deck above the steam boilers and the upper deck with the wheelhouse. Three shell boilers , which are operated with oil and generate a pressure of approx. 13.8 bar, supply the steam for the two main machines and auxiliary machines, each with an output of 336 kW . The current boilers are the fourth in the Belle , but are very similar to the originals and were installed in 1968. The machines have already been used in other steamships and were built in 1889 or 1890. The rear bucket wheel has a diameter of 5.80 meters and a width of 7.32 meters and has six rows with 16 blades each. The two single-cylinder steam engines have a piston diameter of 40.6 cm and a stroke of 1.98 meters.
Web links
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- ↑ a b belleoflouisville.org: history of the Belle of Louisville ( Memento of the original from July 21, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Retrieved July 8, 2009
- ↑ Entry in the National Register Information System . National Park Service , accessed June 12, 2016
- ↑ Listing of National Historic Landmarks by State: Kentucky. National Park Service , accessed August 3, 2019.
- ↑ NPS.gov: Specifications Belle of Louisville, Retrieved July 8, 2009