August/September

August 1858: Union Becomes First Steamer Fitted With Calliope

In 1855, the United States Patent Office issued Patent #13,668 to Joshua C. Stoddard for an instrument producing music by passing steam or compressed air through what are commonly known as whistles. And on August 8, 1858, a steam calliope was first fitted on a boat, which was a steamer called the Union.

August 1867: Cincinnati Recognized as Hub for Water Travel

Cincinnati, as in previous years, was recognized as the leading river town on the Ohio River in James Parton's article published in the August 1867 edition of Atlantic Monthly. He wrote, "·the levee which now extends five of six miles around the large bend upon which the city stands, exhibits all the varieties of western steamboats·A traveler must indeed be difficult to please who cannot find upon the Cincinnati levee a steamboat bound to a place he would like to visit·We have but to pay our money and take our choice of the towns upon sixteen thousand miles of navigable water."

August 1895: Fire Destroys Steamers in Cincinnati

The steamer Big Sandy and the sternwheel steamer Carrollton were totally destroyed by fire on August 5, 1895 while laid up at the Wharfboat at the foot of Broadway in Cincinnati. A fire started in some bailed hay on the Wharfboat and quickly spread to the two steamboats. The value of the Big Sandy at the time of its destruction was approximately $40,000.

September 1947: Delta Queen Refurbished; Island Queen Burns

On September 8, 1947, the Delta Queen was hauled up to the Dravo Shipyard Marine Ways in Pittsburgh to scrape off the Navy grey paint from her wartime duties to be converted from a Navy Ferry to a pleasure boat. Part of the refurbishing included removal of the California style metal paddlewheel shield, as ice on the Ohio and upper Mississippi Rivers would jam the wheel in the constricted space under the cover. Ironically, she was hauled up to the Shipyard almost in sight of the second Island Queen, which exploded and burned the next day.

The fate of the the Island Queen, which was docked at Pittsburgh's Wood Street Wharf for repairs, resulted after a welder's torch had ignited gas from a fuel tank, which set off the first explosion. It ruptured a fuel tank or line, which in turn set off a second explosion, rocking the boat and spreading fire everywhere. Testimony indicates that the steamer had about 27,000 gallons of fuel onboard. The Queen had been on a typical "end of the Coney Island season" tour to other cities, where she would carry pleasure seekers to and from river towns on afternoon and evening cruises.

The steamer was destroyed as a result of the explosion, where nineteen of her crew perished and forty others were injured. She was valued at nearly $1 million.

Ironically, Homer Denny, the Island Queen calliopist, had just left the boat to take pictures of the Queen. He snapped one photo as the first explosion occurred, immediately taking subsequent shots. As a result, Denny was able to capture on film the most accurate record of the ship's demise. Only the iron frame of his calliope did not burn, and he later salvaged four of the brass keys that hadn't melted.