Steamboat Travel on San Francisco Bay and Beyond
Part 2
Entry Author: Stan
Garvey
In 1936 the Delta King had its closest brush with
disaster during its years of commercial service. With only
a skeleton crew aboard, the boat headed for Stockton to dock
and wait out a Bay Area waterfront strike. Just minutes after
leaving Pier 3 in San Francisco, the boilers ran out of water,
and the engines were shut down. Without power, the vessel
drifted. Wind and tide took over, and soon the King
ran aground on Alcatraz Island, home of the infamous federal
prison. Damage to the boat was minimal, but the greeting from
prison guards was less than friendly - crew members were looking
into the muzzles of submachine guns. After a few minutes of
high anxiety, a tugboat arrived and towed the boat back to
Pier 3. There, after hull and machinery inspection, the vessel
was ready to go again. This time, the cruise was uneventful.
The Delta Queen pulls ahead in this 1938
steamboat race on the Sacramento River (photo: San Francisco
National Maritime Museum)
Had those who loved the Delta King and
Delta Queen been able to foresee the future, September
29, 1940, would have been a sad day indeed. As fate would
determine later, on that date the two boats made their final
voyages between San Francisco and Sacramento. That ended their
commercial careers in the state. It not only concluded their
13-year reign, but it also provided the grand finale for nearly
a century of steamboating by scores of vessels on the Sacramento
River. The Delta King and Delta Queen had closed
a colorful chapter of San Francisco and Northern California
history.
When the legendary steamboats finished those autumn trips
in 1940, it was assumed that they would begin operating again
the following year after a winter layover. But this was not
to be - in October, the Navy leased them for a year. The boats
were docked on San Francisco Bay as floating barracks for
naval reservists who had recently been activated.
The Delta Queen began her Navy career at Yerba Buena
Island, next to Treasure Island where the fair had just closed.
On October 16, 1940, the first wave of 230 reservists came
aboard and were given various training assignments. On the
Queen, Navy recruits had a dramatic view of the famous
China Clipper and other flying boats taking off from the Pan
American World Airways base, just across the lagoon at Treasure
Island.
Soon after, the Delta King began its service at the
new Naval Net Depot near Tiburon in Marin County. There, in
a program of national preparedness, sailors constructed an
antisubmarine net and placed it across the Golden Gate. At
the end of a year, the two vessels were sent back to their
owners for commercial use. But one month later, on December
7, 1941, Japanese war planes attacked Pearl Harbor. Both craft
returned to Navy duty.
Immediately, the boats received a special assignment. They
steamed to San Francisco, met transport ships carrying wounded
from Hawaii, then quickly loaded and delivered the injured
men to the Mare Island naval hospital at Vallejo. Then, for
the next 18 months, the riverboats served as barracks at various
Bay Area locations. After overhauls in 1943, they began a
new phase: shuttling sailors and soldiers between military
bases around the bay - Treasure Island, Alameda Naval Air
Station, Fort Mason - and the San Francisco waterfront.
Occasionally, they would be called upon to make the longer
trip to ferry troops to and from Camp Stoneman at Pittsburg,
where the bay meets the river, 40 miles northeast of San Francisco.
In 1944, good luck saved the two boats from destruction. Although
their route to Camp Stoneman passed right by Port Chicago
and they had even been known to stop there, both vessels were
elsewhere when the ammunition depot blew up on July 17 in
the worst home-front disaster of the war.
In 1945 the Delta Queen had the honor of playing the role
of international hostess for the Navy. During the historic
weeks when the United Nations founding conference met in San
Francisco, she took delegates on sightseeing trips around
the bay. Then, early in 1946, the Queen took on a much different
role, that of a gunboat. She circled Alcatraz Island for one
full day with sharpshooters on her decks. It seemed that an
escape attempt from the prison was expected but eventually
averted. No shots were fired.
The river steamers served the Navy until 1946, when they were
laid up at the Reserve Fleet on Suisun Bay, usually known
as the "mothball fleet." In 1947 the Delta Queen
was sold and, under tow, left California for a trip through
the Panama Canal and a new life on the Mississippi and Ohio
rivers. Amazingly, today - after operating there for more
than half a century - the Queen still carries passengers on
overnight luxury cruises of three to seven days. Many consider
the Queen the world's most famous steamboat.
The Delta King was towed to Canada in 1952 and used
as a dormitory for smelter workers. Landlocked, it sat on
dry ground for seven years. Eventually, it was towed back
to California, where it suffered three decades of further
humiliation, which included two sinkings, a fire, and a "midnight
piracy." Today, after extensive restoration, the riverboat
glistens as a floating hotel and is docked at the Old Sacramento
waterfront.
The life stories of the historic Delta King and Delta
Queen represent a colorful chapter of San Francisco history.
Based in the city, these vessels were the last and most famous
of the paddle-wheel steamers that once departed the waterfront
each night, bound for Sacramento. Importantly, 2002 is a milestone
year for these legendary riverboats - it marks the 75th anniversary
of their maiden voyages that began from San Francisco's Pier
3.
DELTA KING & DELTA QUEEN, ORIGINAL SPECS
Construction: At Stockton, California, 1924-27
Length: 285 feet (includes sternwheel; hull alone 250)
Beam: 58 feet
Draft: 6-8 feet, depending upon load
Speed: 15 mph maximum (normal speed 10-11 mph)
Decks: Freight deck plus 3 passenger decks
Hull: Galvanized steel plates fabricated in Scotland
Superstructure: Wood, cargo deck on up, built at Stockton
Cabins: 96 with hot/cold water, some with private bath
Passengers: Nightly, 200 in cabins; on rare day trips, 1,000
Regular service: San Francisco-Sacramento, 1927-40
Headquarters: Pier 3 in San Francisco
A note of historical trivia for maritime buffs: Although the
two boats never steamed through the Golden Gate in their commercial
or Navy years, they both passed under the bridge after the
war. The Queen did it once, on her way to the Panama
Canal (1947); the King did it twice, going to and returning
from Canada (1952 & 1959). On all three occasions, the
boats were towed by sea-going tugs.
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Delta King & Delta Queen Construction, 1924-1927