Paddlewheel Boats Wanted / For Sale
If you know of a paddlewheeler in need of a home, or if you're searching for a boat to acquire, please send the information to Steamboats.com and we will try to arrange a match. Your notice will be posted here upon receipt.
This log goes back in time, with newest entries at the top and oldest entries at the bottom. Reload for the latest news.
07 Feb. 05
Steamboats of Australia Linked
Steamboats.com is happy to announce a new link collection: Paddle Steamers of Australia. The list includes the Murray River and more. Log on and find out what's going on down there.
30 Jan. 05
The domain name www.steamboilers.net is available. Seller will consider offers around 350 pounds U.K. ($665 U.S.). Please contact Simon (click here) for further details.
Columbia Queen Returns in April 2005
SEATTLE - Under the new ownership of Great American River Journeys (GARJ), a Seattle-based cruise line, the luxurious 161-passenger riverboat Columbia Queen will return to operation on the Columbia, Snake, and Willamette rivers following a three-year hiatus (click here for full story).
01 Dec. 04
Steamboat Art Collection is Offered
Amos Farrell recently contacted Steamboats.com. He is the great grandson of Samuel Ward Stanton, an American artist who drew and painted steamships from about 1880 to 1912. His family owns a collection of approximately 50 - 100 of Samuel Ward Stanton's works.
Many of the drawings have fact sheets with them, including descriptions of the boats, types of engines, when built, and by which yard, etc., but the artworks are not sorted or cataloged.
The collection will be auctioned through eBay, but the family wants to find interested parties in the hopes that the collection will end up with people who appreciate steamboats.
There will be a notice in the January Steamboat Bill (journal of the Historical Steamship Society). Here are a few pages about Samuel Ward Stanton on the Steamship Historical Society: Illustrations by Samuel Ward Stanton.
If you would like to inquire about this collection, please write to Amos Farrell: click here to email.
Antique Stateroom Key
Gloria Packard is offering an antique stateroom key from a ferry boat named Belfast, built in 1902 that used to service the route between Bangor and Boston. The Belfast was later turned into a liberty ship and saw action in the Pacific during WWII. If you are interested, please contact Gloria Packard email.
Reception for Andrea Sutcliffe Thursday
Andrea Sutcliffe explores the little known history of America's "first great invention" - Steam. Sutcliffe shares the story of John Fitch and his adversaries in the race to create the first passenger steamboat, eventually succeeding in the endeavor nearly two decades prior to Robert Fulton's famous trip up the Hudson River in 1807. Book signing. Free ($5 suggested donation). For information call 212.748.8735.
South Street Seaport Museum
12 Fulton Street (between South and Front Streets in Manhattan, New York, NY)
Who Built the First Steamboat?
There's good news for people who want to find the truth about the invention of the steamboat. Author Andrea Sutcliffe has tackled the question in a new book, Steam: The Untold Story of America's First Great Invention, to be released July 4, 2004. Pre-order it at Amazon by clicking on the title.
Grand Excursion Postcard Available
The Grand Excursion starts in just eleven days (See "Big Steamboat Party" below, click here). Now you can get a postcard commemorating the event. It depicts the War Eagle, a boat that participated in the original Grand Excursion, plus the Mississippi Queen, which will participate in this year's event.
Send $1 to: Patrick Rash, P.O. Box 931, La Crosse WI 54602-0931.
Artist Warren Stichtenoth Now at Steamboats.com
The newest exhibit at the Online Steamboat Museum shows the work of Warren Stichtenoth, creator of many 1960s and 1970s era Delta Queen paintings, drawings, and company logos. Click here to go to the Warren Stichtenoth exhibit in the Steamboat Museum.
Expension Steam Engines for Sale
From the Steamboat Mailbox:
"I have two triple expension steam engines for sale, made in the 1920s 450hp each in full working condition. If you are interested please contact me. A true master peice Romy - Email for more information."
Steamboat Wanted for Tennessee River
A private party is interested in purchasing a steamboat for personal use on the Tennessee River. They are willing to spend $100K and up and are very serious about obtaining a boat. Contact Tom if you have any leads (Email).
Steamboat Race at the Kentucky Derby
Here's something to look forward to: the next The Great Steamboat Race between the Delta Queen and the Belle of Louisville will be April 28 at 5 p.m. in Cincinnati. We just heard from Stacey Yates, the press officer for the Kentucky Derby Festival. She added a link to our site after seeing it in AAA Home & Away Magazine.
She said: "The community Festival I work for produces an annual steamboating event called the 'Great Steamboat Race.' It's more than 40 years old and has traditionally featured the Delta Queen and the Belle of Louisville since its inception."
Click here to go to the Kentucky Derby Festival site and read the announcement about the next race.
Off Line Again
My sites were off line again over the last 24 hours and here's the most recent word from the domain host:
Maintenance work is currently taking place on server 1050 due to a denial of service attack. We are upgrading certain software packages due to security issues. Our engineers are working to complete the maintenance as quickly as possible so that the server can be accessible. You can view the latest updates at http://noc.domainhost.com/.
We apologize for any inconvenience and appreciate your patience and understanding.
Technical Support Department
Steamboats.com Off Line for 36 Hours
As i write this, Steamboats.com has been off line since sometime yesterday. Here's the problem, according to my domain host's network status update:
The server had to be disconnected from the Internet due to a user who had been initiating network attacks against various machines on the Internet. We are currently restoring the server from a backup to eliminate any possibility of a system compromise and to ensure integrity of customer data and our network. The server will be placed online as soon as possible once our network administrators complete a full system analysis and stability test. We apologize for any inconvenience and thank you for your patience.
Hope everyone had a great new year celebration to welcome 2004. Over the holiday, Steamboats.com went off the air due to technical difficulties. We're back now and please don't ask us what happened! Yesterday's problems are gone and we learned a lot. Now, on with the new year!
Big steamboat party on the Mississippi in 2004
The steamboats have a big party planned for us June 25 to July 5, 2004 to celebrate 150 years of their history on the upper Mississippi River. Communities in Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Minnesota will hold celebrations as a flotilla of paddlewheel steamboats recreate the original 1854 Grand Excursion's journey. For more information and to get tickets, go to: GrandExcursion.com.
Steamboat Wanted:
Looking for 80 to 150 passenger paddlewheeler for dinner cruises on the the Susquehanna River, North East Pennsylvania. Please call 1-800-233-8342 ext. 111 Donna or email Donna c/o Steamboats.com (click here for contact info.).
Subj: SS Argentina
Date: 9/16/2003 2:34:28 PM Eastern Daylight Time
From: KarinCleary
To: Steamboatmail
I am writing to you in hopes that you can help us save a historic Ocean Liner that is in danger of being scrapped some time this month. The S.S. Argentina [currently called the Enchanted Isle] is urgently in need of assistance in preventing her from heading to the breakers in Africa.
Background: Two new sister ships, the S.S. Brasil and the S.S. Argentina were built at Ingalls Shipyards, Pascagoula, Mississippi, for Moore-McCormack Lines to replace the ships built in 1928. (During World War II, Moore-McCormack Lines operated more than 150 ships, lost 11 vessels, transported 754,239 troops, and carried 34,410,111 tons of war cargo.) The S.S. Brasil was launched in September 1958 and the S.S. Argentina was launched in December 1958.
They were built as luxury ocean liners, later becoming cruise ships and were THE LAST PASSENGERS SHIPS BUILT IN THE U.S.
The Enchanted Isle, as she is now known, (formerly the S.S. Argentina) was just sold for $2.08 million (less than 1/10th than what it cost to build her). She will be leaving this month to head for the breakers in either India or Africa. She is currently laid up in Violet, Louisiana.
Some friends and I are frantically searching for some way to prevent a piece of American history from being lost for all time. It is a shame that we sometimes do not appreciate what we have, until we do not have it any longer. In any case, emotions aside, the ship is truly beautiful.
I was hoping that you would help us by placing a link to this website: http://namerican1.home.att.net. We're trying to get this information out to as many people as we can. We have a "Save the Ship" page on there where people can write to Congressmen telling them we need their help in saving this piece of history from being destroyed.
Let me know if this is something you would be willing to do. Thank you for your time and consideration.
Karin Cleary
Newest Pages at Steamboats.com
This year's International Online Steamboat Race was a big success. Furthermore, Steamboats.com took first place! This is fantastic news to us, even though 99.999 percent of the world does not know about online steamboat racing. Someday they'll learn!! Steamboats.com will proudly display the coveted antler trophy throughout the year, or until another boat wins the reace. Click here to see the race. Click here to see the after-event entertainment: Steamboat 'Round the Bend, starring Will Rogers.
More new pages: Go to the Online Steamboat Museum to find out about cruises you can take in Salem, Oregon, and Omaha, Nebraska. I went out to see those boats this summer with my camera. Click here for Salem; here for Omaha. Happy steamboating and thank you for all the letters and guestbook signatures.
Wanted: Dry Docked or in-Need-of-Saving Steamboat
Several people are looking for steamboats suitable for saving, display. Here is one request: Nick Vazquez
I hope that you can help me find a company that recreates the steamboats, paddlewheelers of the past. I believe that they must all be dry docked. We would like to use it for a restaurant, catering purpose.
Steamboat Wanted for Adventure Golf Facility in Louisiana
Good chance for a second life! If you know a steamboat that needs a home, contact Steve and Angela Ross: email
Hello. My wife and I looking to purchase a riverboat paddlewheel to display at our brand new adventure golf facility in Louisiana. Do you know of any authentic or replica sources we can contact. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you.
Railpub Offers Books, Journals on Steamboat Hobby
Paul Gibson wrote in with the following information:
Railpub is a dealer in back issue magazines, probably the largest on the internet, with 300+ titles currently in stock covering steamboats, railroading, tractors, autos, trucks and various transport and industrial subjects.
We also have over 2000 used books available. Many of these are steamboat or marine related. For example, our current catalog contains back issues for Steamboat Bill, S&D Reflector, Ships Monthly, Sea Breezes and more. We have been in business for nine years, and our website is updated with new inventory every six weeks.
Visit http://www.railpub.com today.
Arizona Steamboat Reunion
Carol Brooks, Curator, Az Hist Soc, Yuma, AZ, writes:
Do you have a relative who worked the steamboats on the Arizona-California border, 1850-1910? Whether they be captain, mate, purser, deckhand, or woodcutter, we would like to hear from you. If your relative worked on one of the ships from San Francisco to the Gulf of California (and connected with the river steamers), or was an owner in the Colorado Steam Navigation Company (or the George Johnson Company), please contact us. A rather incomplete list of names we have found can be seen at http://yumalibrary.org/ahs/lib_archives. This list has some biographical information with the names. A large number of the men were from NY, CA, and Hawaii. Please e-mail us at Az History Yuma.
Steamboats.com was off line most of Tuesday, 25 Feb. 03. Hit a virtual sandbar. Operations returned to normal sometime during the night. No email was lost. Our domain host did not get fired, either. They are pretty good. Software problems happen. ~ed.
Steamboats.com has had so many technical problems that we decided to post our service record. To see the litany of troubles, click here.
American Queen to Race Natchez
Read the latest news from the American Queen steamboat: click here.
Want a Free Steamboat?
Hello Nori! Just a note to let river enthusiasts know that the City of St. Charles, Missouri wants to dispose of the Goldenrod Showboat and is even considering giving it away! The venerable 1909 showboat is the last of only two authentic showboats in existence (the other is the MAJESTIC at Cincinnati, Ohio) and needs to be saved! From 1937 until 1990, the Goldenrod was moored at St. Louis and was the home of the annual ragtime festival.
Email Overboard - Please Write to Us Again
I accidentally erased a letter sent in late Oct. or early Nov. 2002 offering a plate print of the Belle of Louisville. I tried to save it but erasing something in AOL's program is final. Apologies, please write back again. Contact Info.
Also, the @steamboats.com account was off line Nov. 9 -11, and some mail may have been returned with "fatal errors." Rumors of nori@steamboats.com's demise are greatly exaggerated. Please write back again.
Delta Queen Models Available
Be the first on your binary block to buy one of these authentic Delta Queen models. THEY'RE HERE! Click here for Delta Queen models
Riverboat and Tugboat Plans for Model Builders
Contact John L. Fryant to buy a catalog of model boat plans. The catalog is $6 U.S. and Canada, $8.50 outside N.America. Write to John for more info.: email