Delta King
 |
||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
The Delta King is an American rear - wheel steamer , which in 1927 together with the sister ship Delta Queen for regular service San Francisco - Sacramento was used. The Delta King is now a permanently installed restaurant and hotel on the waterfront in Sacramento.
construction
The hull consists of galvanized steel segments that were prefabricated at the William Denny & Brothers shipyard in Dumbarton and assembled in Stockton. The drive was a composite steam engine with a 3.05 m stroke and an output of 2000 hp, which is still running in the sister ship Delta Queen . The original blade wheel with blades 28 has a diameter of 8 m and a width of 6.5 m. It was steered by four oars in front of the paddle wheel.
The Delta King had four decks - a cargo deck and three passenger decks. The upper two passenger decks had 96 cabins with very luxurious equipment for the time. The deck structure was made from wood by the California Transportation Company in Stockton and lavishly decorated and clad.
history
The 1920s and 1930s
The Delta King and her sister ship Delta Queen - called the "Million Dollar Boats" - were built between 1924 and 1927 in Dumbarton, Scotland, and in Stockton. The two barges were commissioned by their owner, California Transportation Co., to replace the Fort Sutter and Capital City ships . It was launched on May 9, 1925 - the superstructure had not yet been completed - and was put into service on May 20, 1927.
The two ships ran in opposite directions overnight on the so-called "Delta Route" between San Francisco and Sacramento; this route led over the San Francisco Bay and the Carquinez Strait through the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta and the Sacramento River . The luxury of the two "riverboats" were an expression of the Roaring Twenties ; in addition, because of the remote delta, it was relatively easy to bypass prohibition .
However, when bridges like the Golden Gate Bridge , the Bay Bridge and the Carquinez Bridge opened in the mid-1930s, significantly easing car traffic from San Francisco to the north and east, steam shipping declined rapidly and the California Transportation Co. had to file for bankruptcy in 1935 . From about this point on, the two ships only ran in the summer season; the last regular "Delta Route" was (although not known at the time) on September 29, 1940.
In World War II
After the Second World War began, the two steamers were rented by the United States Navy and used as temporary barracks on Treasure Island . In the fall of 1941 they were returned to the California Transportation Co. to be overhauled in Stockton. Due to the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the two steamers were again needed by the Navy and converted into hospital ships on which the wounded arriving in the bay were cared for. At this time, the two ships were also bought by the Navy, the Delta King was operated as the YHB-6 ("Yard House Boat" - "Wohnschiff").
When the hospital capacities were no longer needed, they were used as military ferries between the various bases - Treasure Island, Alameda Naval Air Station , Fort Mason and San Francisco Pier - in the Bay of San Francisco; the registration was changed to YFB-55 ("Yard Ferry Boat" - "Ferry").
At the beginning of 1946, the two ships were removed from the Navy register and transferred to the " Mothball Fleet " at Suisun Bay .
The 1940s and 1950s
The Delta King , like the Delta Queen , was auctioned by the Navy in 1946. Originally auctioned by the Southeast Asia Importing & Exporting Co., the Delta King was returned because the offer was made unseen and it was assumed that it was a seaworthy ship.
After several unsuccessful auctions, which made it more and more likely to be scrapped, the boat was bought by L. G. Wingard and partners from Seattle in 1948 for US $ 24,000 . The boat was to be used as a floating fish canning factory in Alaska . The partnership quickly broke up, however, and the Delta King was moored in Antioch .
In early 1952 the King was sold to Kitimat Constructors, a construction company that was supposed to build the town of Kitimat (British Columbia) for Alcan . The steamer should - put ashore - as accommodation for construction workers, and at the same time serve to generate heat and energy. In Antioch the steamer was prepared for the transfer, the steam engine, paddle wheel and other equipment were removed, but the steam boiler system and generators were left. On April 15, 1952, the journey to British Columbia began , and on May 8, the tugboat entered the Douglas Channel . The Delta King was set ashore by means of a cofferdam and by using the tidal range of 13 m in some cases, and now served as accommodation and to generate electricity.
From 1958 there was enough permanent living space available and the Delta King was again offered for sale. On March 2, 1959, the ship was bought by John Kessel from Stockton for US $ 32,000, on March 27, the voyage to Stockton began, where the ship arrived on April 30.
In the fall of 1959, the ship was used to shoot the film " Adventure on the Mississippi ". However - due to the missing paddle wheel - the steamer is only shown from the front and with a long focal length. A tug on the opposite side caused movement. In addition, to appear Mississippi- friendly, two fake chimneys were put on, the original chimney was painted sky blue.
The 1960s and 1970s
The 1960s began with repair work, the new owner wanted to use the ship first as a lodge , then as a floating museum or night club. For reasons that are no longer comprehensible, 68 hatches were cut into the hull near the waterline, which would later play a tragic role.
There was also a bewildering variety of lawsuits, opinions, and plans for the steamer. On the one hand, because a certain Barney Gould, who had wanted to buy the Delta King many years beforehand, made a claim on the ship and brought it to bear; on the other hand, John Kessel gradually lost the support of his investors. Various lawsuits have been filed by businesses against the owners for failure to pay bills, almost foreclosure more than once. During this time, the steam boiler and the generators were lost. In July 1965, the steamer was sold for US $ 247,683 to Melvin Belli , a famous San Francisco attorney, who announced that the ship would be used as floating Ghirardelli Square . However, these plans also ended in the sand, the ship remained in Stockton, with the superstructure slowly rotting due to lack of care.
In the meantime, a group of residents formed in Sacramento who wanted the Delta King as a showpiece for the waterfront. This group, called Riverboat's Coming !, Inc. (RCI), bought an enforcement warrant for US $ 14,000 from the owner of the berth, and "hijacked" the ship from its berth in Stockton on July 18, 1969 (the berth owner had also given an eviction notice) and dragged it to Sacramento. There it was christened on July 25th, but at the same time the ship was occupied by US Marshals after the actual owner Belli had sued for piracy .
The marshals occupation lasted about 2 weeks after Belli "forgot" to pay the security fees. The RCI occupied the boat again to prevent vandalism. On weekends, RCI organized parties as fundraising on the boat, the high point being the Sacramento Jazz Jubilee , which was first organized on October 12, 1969 , a now widely known jazz festival that has been held annually since then.
However, the boat had to be closed to the public in 1973 after fire safety regulations were not met and the RCI (as a non-owner) could not and did not want to carry out the necessary repairs. In addition, in 1971 a United States District Court had determined a certain Gene Detgen as the rightful owner - although it is not clear whether this existed at all or was just a straw man to protect against creditors. So it happened that on February 16, 1974 the Delta King was towed from Sacramento with an unknown destination.
As it quickly turned out, the new owner tried to hide the boat in the Sacramento Delta in Collinsville near Antioch from being accessed again, but this failed completely, as newspapers reported about the new berth a week later. The captain of the tug later said:
"Trying to hide them (the Delta King ) was like trying to hide the Empire State Building ."
In the new berth, a narrow and shallow canal, the ship sucked itself into the mud at low tide and quickly filled up with water to the cargo deck at high tide. The reason was the already mentioned, low-seated hatches. Divers sealed the hatches and pumped out the water in the fall of 1974, the ship was towed to Rio Vista and moored there.
In the meantime, new legal problems came up to the owners who had announced the Delta King as the showpiece of a residential area on Quimby Island and had sold shares for it. After the company went bankrupt, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission opened an investigation, with the result that the Delta King was publicly auctioned on February 10, 1979. The highest bid was placed by M. K. Sun, who had plans for a restaurant ship in San Francisco. The ship was towed to Richmond , where it was moored next to the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge , while the owner took care of the necessary permits and assessments.
The 1980s to the present
The first hurdle was cleared in 1980 when they got a permit for a berth on the waterfront in San Francisco. In addition, the Delta King was towed into Richmond Harbor and moored on the Lauritzen Channel.
1981 turned out to be a tragic year for the Delta King . The owner died at the beginning of the year, so the ship had another uncertain future. But things got even worse on the night of April 3 to 4, 1981, in which the bow landed on the pier due to poor mooring. Due to the incoming tide, the ship leaned more and more until water penetrated through the low-lying hatches through the angle of inclination. The Delta King came to rest in the 8 to 10 meters deep water, the water was above the saloon deck, only the two upper decks protruded from the water. Several attempts to raise the ship failed until it finally floated again on June 24, 1982. After almost 1 ½ years in the muddy bay water, the Delta King was now in poor shape.
In the meantime, ownership had changed again and the latest plan was to make it part of the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park and timesharing the cabins to secure funding. Like many other plans, these ideas literally fell through - due to a lack of money or because no promised support from the state or municipal authorities was available.
Another attempt was made to integrate the boat into the waterfront in Sacramento. After some hesitation from the Sacramento City Council, permission was granted for the pier below Tower Bridge in Sacramento, which the two ships used for their daily trips to San Francisco in the 1920s and 1930s. The Delta King's “last voyage” (behind a tug) began on July 26, 1984.
The ship was cleaned at the new berth and the restoration began while the City of Sacramento prepared the final berth in "Old Town Sacramento". The renovations cost a total of 10.5 million US $, on May 20, 1989 the new opening took place.
In addition to being used as a hotel, the Delta King now houses a theater, a restaurant, a bar with live music and various conference rooms. It is popular for weddings and company parties. As a special feature, the wheelhouse with captain's cabin can be rented.
literature
- Stan Garvey: King and Queen of the River . River Heritage Press, Menlo Park 2004, ISBN 978-0-9642513-5-9 (first edition: 1995).
Web links
- Official website (English).
- Theater in the Delta King (Engl.)
- Delta King in steamboats.org (Engl.)