The Debut of The American Queen in 1995 – A Game Changer

The Debut of The American Queen

By Ted Scull.

🎧 Listen to Ted’s audio tour of the American Queen:

Update Feb 24, 2024: The three riverboats of American Queen Voyages, including the American Queen, ceased operations earlier this week as will the company’s pair of coastal ships. The bottom line is that the line never recovered from the COVID period, and the American Queen was the only member of the fleet that turned a profit.

DATE LINE Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Standing atop the high buffs above the Monongahela River, my wife and I look down upon a richly-ornate sternwheel steamboat. It sure looks impressive from afar, but will she impress once aboard?

We are anticipating our five-night Ohio River cruise downriver to Cincinnati.

The American Queen awaits, at Maysville, Kentucky. * Photo: Ted Scull

RELATED: American Queen Voyages, formerly American Queen Steamboard Company.

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First — The Pioneering Delta Queen & Delta King

The Delta Queen, the principal driver for restarting cruises on midwestern rivers  dates back to 1926 when she and her running mate Delta King established an overnight link along the Sacramento River between Sacramento, California’s state capital, and San Francisco. The initial operation was more transportation than a cruise.

Delta King in its first incarnation as an overnight passenger, freight and vehicle ferry. * Photo: River Lines

The pair were designed to be workhorses carrying freight, the mail, automobiles and their owners back in the days when many western highways were still fairly primitive. They had sleeping cabins, spare by today’s standards, outfitted with upper and lower bunks and a washbasin, and hooks to hang your clothes and roomier twin-bedded accommodations with private shower facilities. Many cabins opened onto a wide promenade deck that encircled the vessel.

The dominant structural feature were the variety of woods — seen in the superstructure, decks, paneling and decorative features — charming but hardly lavish. However, the pair were genuine steamboats and a worthy continuation of a long tradition when hundreds of such vessels plied America’s rivers.

In the 19th century the Mississippi River, along with hundreds of stern-wheel steamboats, provided the principal passenger and freight connections between the Upper Midwest, Mid-America and the Deep South. * Photo: Delta Queen Steamboat Company

The Boats Change Hands

When the Sacramento-San Francisco service ended, and following WWII, the Delta Queen was purchased in 1946 by the Greene Line of Cincinnati. After a total refit, it entered service to become a highly successful cruise boat on the Mississippi River system.

Delta Queen alongside landing at Paducah, Kentucky. * Photo: Ted Scull

The Delta King had stationary roles for years until she began a life as a hotel, bar, restaurant, and meeting space at the very same Sacramento location from where she sailed over to San Francisco. On several occasions, I have had lunch aboard and find her very appealing. Her location is adjacent to the California State Railroad Museum in Old Sacramento.

After a long cruising career, the Delta Queen was laid up and is now in Houma, Louisiana.

It is my hope that one day the Delta Queen will again sail as she was my first exposure to this genre.

Brothers Ted & Sandy Scull pause for a photo with the Delta Queen in the background. * Photo: A Chattanooga resident.

I took to her enough to sail five times between 1985 and 2006 along the Mississippi, Ohio, Cumberland, Tennessee, Kanawha and very short stretches of the Missouri, Allegheny and Monongahela rivers.

She is a genuine link to the past.

Bookings Galore

In the 1970s, with business increasing, the brand new and much larger Mississippi Queen entered service in 1976, a genuine steamboat by propulsion and offering a higher level of cabin accommodations that pleased her passengers. Her interiors, however, might have been inspired by Holiday Inn.

The American Queen approaches a landing on the Lower Mississippi in 1995. * Photo: Ted Scull

Nonetheless, with her booking success, she underwent an interior make-over that celebrated decorative styles of the past. No doubt about it, she become even more popular and was a genuine example of a happy ship for both crew and passengers as certainly demonstrated on my Lower Mississippi cruise.

When laid up following the 2001 terrorist attacks, the Mississippi Queen was neglected and wasted away to such an extent that when leisure travel returned, she was beyond restoration. It was tragic and a substantial blow to the river cruise industry.

Enter the Greatest Steamboat Ever Built

To respond to the pent-up demand for river travel, in 1995 a revived Delta Queen Steamboat Company took on the monumental task of creating the most magnificent river vessel ever seen, both inside and out.

The American Queen at her Marietta, Ohio landing in 1995. * Photo: Ted Scull

I held my breath, hoping for the best, but not sure that it would come off. Perhaps I was asking too much.

Wasting no time to find out, on an October afternoon in 1995, following an overnight hotel stay in Pittsburgh, my wife and I rolled our bags the short distance to the Allegheny River and crossed the bridge to PNC stadium.

Here we turned left following the riverbank to the American Queen’s landing. At the stage (steamboat speak for gangway), we were signaled by a crewmember to come aboard for a five-night cruise.

RELATED: Sandy Scull’s Poetic Take on Steamboat Lingo.

Boarding

Mounting the majestic American Queen’s grand staircase and entering the Cabin Deck Lobby, the first item I noticed was a large silver-plated Reed & Barton water cooler. After our multi-block march from the hotel, we were more than happy to have a glass.

During the heady steamboat days, drinking water would be at a premium and not usually available from the cabin faucet, so this amenity would be most welcome, as it was on this day, and other days when we returned from shoreside visits.

Reed & Barton Water Cooler. * Photo: Ted Scull

Note: This American silversmith manufacturer, based in the city of Taunton, Massachusetts, operated between 1824 and 2015.

The Once Over Continues

As I looked ahead and to either side, I was dazzled by a stunning suite of rooms that could easily be the stately home of a 19th-century steel magnate or railroad baron.

Surrounding us were mahogany, brass, silver, iron, marble, lace, leather, stained glass, etched glass, plaster moldings, tin ceilings, patterned wallpaper, thick carpets, oil paintings, chandeliers, stuffed animals, and a plethora of knickknacks in an adjoining pair of Victorian parlors and a richly-decorated club lounge.

What a magnificent setting!

Recreating an anachronism of the 19th century may seem quaint, but the 222 cabins aboard the 418-foot sternwheel steamboat were full of paying passengers.

In the days ahead, residents living along the Ohio River came down in droves to ogle the largest connection to an elegant earlier era of river transportation.

The American Queen Takes the Lead in “Tall Stacks”

We would be welcomed as important visitors at Wellsburg, West Virginia, and Marietta, Ohio and greeted with toots from passing barges, tugs, and trains. Then arriving Cincinnati, we became the much-anticipated star attraction at “Tall Stacks,” an impressive gathering of American sternwheelers, and soon the American Queen took the lead in the parade.

The entire Delta Queen Steamboat Co. fleet — the Delta Queen, Mississippi Queen, and the American Queen — triggered much the same emotional reactions as did the sight of a belching steam locomotives threading across the landscape or a dirigible hovering above a World Series game.

The Mississippi Queen & Delta Queen seen from the American Queen at Tall Stacks, Cincinnati, Ohio. * Photo: Ted Scull

From the riverbank, the locals see a palatial showboat that resembles a multi-layered wedding cake with dangling ramps extending from the bow and a big paddlewheel slowly churning up water at the stern.

But what really goes on within to dazzle and please paying patrons?

Touring Within

The Grand Saloon aboard the American Queen turns evenings into major events for the staging of American musicals, jazz concerts, Dixieland, and the big band sound.

A Glen Miller Miller Orchestra entertains. * Photo: Ted Scull

Designed after a small-town opera house, it allows the audience to choose from upholstered armchairs in curved theater-box overlooking the lighted proscenium, seats in the rear balcony, and banquettes or deep cushioned lounge chairs on the lower level.

Two massive globes, ringed by gas-style lamps, hang from a plaster ceiling decorated with twinkling stars.

The J.M. White Dining Room recalls the main cabin lounge aboard the late 19th-century namesake steamboat with a pair of soaring port and starboard two-deck fore and aft sections decorated with white filigree woodwork, colorful tapestries, and two huge, gilded antique mirrors, one French and one American.

The J. M White dining room is designed after the one on the 19th century steamboat J.M. White. * Photo: Ted Scull

RELATED: Bill Forsstrom Talks to Ted about his Passion for American Queen.

The Menu Please  

The food runs to American, Southern, and Cajun with consistently satisfying prime ribs, roast duck, fried oysters, and catfish stuffed with crab and wild rice. We enjoyed ravioli stuffed with shrimp, seafood gumbo, garlic and leek soup, Mississippi Mud Pie, and praline and pecan cheesecake.

Reads too rich? Well, there were plenty of light options and for those with dietary requests.

Light buffet lunches are served in the adjacent Main Deck Lounge, a full-width room divided by parallel mirrored partitions into cozy Victorian seating areas centered around antique marble tables. The Captain’s Bar serves passengers awaiting the lunch and dinner bell. An on-deck restaurant serves dinner with great views of the passing scenes.

Dinner on deck while paddling down the Ohio River. * Photo: Ted Scull

The Public Rooms

On Cabin Deck above, the centrally positioned Mark Twain Gallery is a dark-paneled room with an arched wooden ceiling that sparkles with display cases containing museum-quality collections of 19th-century maps, cameras, early radios, and showboat handbills and posters.

The Mark Twain, a cozy lounge for reading and enjoying the treasures dotted all about. * Photo: Ted Scull

Two large glass cases hold detailed models of the Delta Queen and J.M. White, and river-related sheet music invites anyone to pluck the antique Steinway upright piano.

The Gordon C. Greene became the first steamboat for what would become the Delta Queen Steamboat Company. * Photo: AQ SB CO

Ladies & Gentlemen

To the right of the Reed & Barton watercooler, the Gentlemen’s Card Room welcomes both sexes to enjoy a game at cherry-wood tables encircled by a stuffed standing black bear, a big fish mounted on a plaque, working upright typewriter, stereoscopic peep show, iron fireplace, and Tiffany lamps ordered from an original 19th-century catalogue.

The Ladies’ Parlor welcomes anyone to settle down on the swooning couch before the fireplace, its wooden mantle cluttered with black and white ancestral photographs and a pair of flanking vases.

Floor lamps with linen shades, silver tea sets, a rosewood pump organ, and floral wallpaper add to the lovely room — a cozy spot for a read and for gazing out at the river through French doors or through a pretty curtained bay window.

The Ladies’ Parlor provides a cozy room for reading.  * Photo: Ted Scull

Souvenirs

The dome over the grand staircase in the central Purser’s Lobby is in the shape of a brooch, and the eagle-festooned chandelier is copied from one made for the Anheuser family (of Anheuser-Busch brands).

To one side, the A.Q. Emporium’s window displays invite one to shop for steamboat-related souvenirs such as decorative glasses, mugs, china, linens and clothing with a steamboat logo, costume jewelry, advertising posters, books related to steam boating and the river ports. We bought a handsome woolen American Queen blanket.

Continuing the tour, the “Engine Room” seemed the least successful public room, a spartan space for smokers and drinkers with porthole views through to the red 50-ton sternwheel.

Playing to the Crowd

The room does come alive in the afternoon at fresh popcorn time, and later when a pianist is in residence. The outdoor Calliope Bar draws dozens when the calliopist plays to the crowds during locking operations and announces “steamboat a’coming” prior to the next port-of-call.

Almost immediately, the locals will begin to appear at the landing for a look and some settle on the embankment to watch the rhythmic comings and goings.

At some landings, the steamboat may be serenaded by a local band.

The American Queens draws locals during a call at Wheeling West Virginia. * Photo:  Ted Scull

The “Front Porch of America,” on Texas Deck, is aptly named for its sweeping views over the bow while the covered space is furnished with white wicker chairs and painted rockers. I find it hard to sit still on a well-balanced rocker and even harder to leave the river scene with its long strings of commercial traffic and pleasure craft darting about.

Looking ahead from a rocking chair. * Photo: Ted Scull

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Mist on the River

For early birds, breakfast pastries, breads, bagels, fresh fruit, and juices are available from 6 o’clock in the morning, providing a relaxed social setting at the start of the day. The mist may still be lying on the water, an eerie sight when it is thick enough to blot out everything over the railing. The nearby river traffic sounds its presence long before you can see the barge and tow.

When a heavy mist settles on the river, the steamboats tie up wherever they can, even to a couple of trees. * Photo: Ted Scull

One deck above, the Chart Room is a hangout for the “riverlorian,” who using flip charts, helps people get their bearings, and spins tales every morning at eight.

As an aside, the American Queen is for early risers, which also means early to bed, hence the evening’s second seating show is wisely scheduled before dinner.

Top-most Sun Deck offers an expanse of open space, an awning-covered section, a bathing pool, and gym. The two decks below this level are taken up with staterooms and wraparound promenades where seven circuits equal a mile. Constitutional walks are highly popular.

The Cabins

The seven cabin categories are beautifully decorated in elaborate Victorian-style, with patterned wallpaper and carpets, richly-colored bedspreads, and wooden cabinets. Most have cushioned wickered chairs and footstools and French doors that hook open to access the open deck.

Cabin 446 aboard the American Queen opens onto the promenade. * Photo: Ted Scull

For example, the 72 B category rooms come in three arrangements. One group offers bay windows, popular with those who like to watch the river from bed; a second type opens onto the side deck and a central corridor; and a third offers private verandas.

Personally, I like a cabin that opens to the side promenade, to watch people pass by.

Some are on a mission while others stroll past and may take time to say hello or strike up a conversation, especially with those who have taken to a deck chair. I like meeting new people as well as taking my own daily constitutional.

These cabins have twin beds that are recessed into shallow arched niches. Closets are open, and the bureau drawers rather small. Bathrooms are tiled in black and white, and B category and up have tub baths. The higher the category, the more true antiques; but the reproductions are also of a consistently high standard.

The Propulsion Story

The American Queen is larger than all her 19^th-century predecessors. To slide under the numerous bridges on the Ohio and Upper Mississippi rivers, the 109-foot-high twin feathered-topped stacks fold forward into cradles. The pilothouse cupola and weather vane in the form of a rooster come off, creating a rather squarish profile.

The red paddlewheel provides all the propulsion for the Delta Queen. * Photo: Ted Scull

To be completely honest, while running-mates Delta Queen and Mississippi Queen were propelled solely by compound condensing steam engines, the American Queen has electric Z-drive thrusters in addition to a steam engine salvaged from an Army Corps of Engineers dredge.

American Queen averages eight miles per hour with a peak speed of 11 mph in slack water.

Steam whistles are traditionally handed down from one boat to the next, and the American Queen’s come from the steamboat Jason, which accepted it from the City of Memphis, a boat that Mark Twain piloted.

The Itineraries

The year I first sailed on this latest steamboat, some passengers, including yours truly, liked living a fairytale. For example, the American Queen and her running mates (see below) offer diverse 3- to 11-day trips from New Orleans, Memphis, St. Louis, Red Wing (MN), Cincinnati, and Pittsburgh, with departures themed to big bands, great American performers, the Civil War, fall foliage, Kentucky Derby, and old-fashioned holidays.

The Midwest rivers and cities and towns served. * Photo: American Queen Steamboat Company

Veteran steamboaters like to argue the merits of individual steamboats, resulting in much discussion about one’s favorite. That discussion can still take place today aboard the present fleet. Go for it!

A Full Moon leads the way down the Ohio River. * Photo: Ted Scull

However different the decor and atmosphere, all four of the current AQSC vessels offer nearly year-round lazy river cruising of America’s beautiful inland waters shared with small boats and rafts of commercial barges. The landings have access to charming towns and major cities that exist because of the river. Along the way, enjoy the celebrated mansions, historic battlefields and the considerable beauty of the American landscape.

Onshore, the envious watch the steamboats pass, wondering what life is like behind all that fancy decorative work.

It’s jolly marvelous, highly varied and with no need to rush, unless you get so engaged ashore you literally risk missing the boat.

Returning to the cliff overlooking the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers and the formation of the Ohio River, I need not have worried about being disappointed when eyeing the massive steamboat down below. She truly exceeded my expectations.

The cliff overlooking the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers and the formation of the Ohio River. * Photo: Ted Scull

Today’s American Queen Steamboat Co. fleet numbers four:

• American Queen (built 1995 & 414 passengers) – Mississippi, Ohio, Tennessee & Cumberland Rivers 
• American Duchess (b.1995 & 166 p) – Mississippi, Ohio, Tennessee & Cumberland Rivers
• American Empress (b. 2003 & 223 p) – Columbia & Snake Rivers
• American Countess (b. 2020 & 245 p) – Mississippi, Ohio, Tennessee & Cumberland Rivers

To find out more about the line, click HERE.

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