Steamboat One and Sunken Secrets

by Jennifer Crutchfield

Photo courtesy the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Bicentennial Library. This drawing depicts the Chattanooga. The steamer built by the Federal Army to supply Grant's troops was known to Southerners as the “Chicken Thief”.

From the “Cracker Line” to the Delta Queen the Tennessee River has drama under the water, too.

Glittering light dances on an ornate grand staircase as the sun filters through stained glass windows once painted Navy gray.  A queen of yesterday, Chattanooga’s Delta Queen has had many names, YFB-56 working for the Navy and Steamboat One in her service to President Jimmy Carter and his family.

Fabricated in one country and assembled in another this majestic vessel and her twin have carried passengers since 1927.  Their parts were made in 1924 in Dumbarton, Scotland, assembled in California and propelled by paddle wheel mechanisms forged at Krupp Stahlwerke AG, Germany.

In the dark days of World War II the Delta Queen was know in California waters as YHB-7 and YFB-56, serving respectively as a Yard House Boat and Yard Ferry Boat for soldiers during a frightening time.  On those same waters she took delegates of the founding conference of the United Nations on sight-seeing trips in the San Francisco Bay.

The twin boats carry their name from the Delta Route in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.  Identical boats, the Delta King and the Delta Queen were such mirror images that during a hasty post-war reassembly some plates were switched and still carry the markings DK instead of DQ.

A grand staircase, dining rooms, lounges and 91 passenger cabins can accommodate up to 182 passengers and the Delta Queen was a popular feature on inland river systems during its long history.  The 1880’s tradition of steamboat racing was revisited in the entertaining “lock around the clock” voyages from St. Paul to St. Louis on the Mississippi River.

A strong family tradition carried the Delta Queen through much of its service.  Gordon and Mary Greene purchased their first boat in 1890, raised their children on their growing fleet of 27 boats.  When Mary, a schoolteacher and boat captain, was left a widow with “four kids, four steamboats, a broken heart and a puzzled mind” it was the command of the Delta Queen that consoled her.

Mary’s watchful spirit is said to remain the vigilant guardian of her family’s floating homestead and paranormal investigators have marveled at the energy and spirit activity on the Delta Queen.  Given the strong family history and political drama on board it is not hard to imagine the spirit of the maritime matriarch, Mary Greene, checking the fabulous machinery with as much love as when she tucked her children into their births.

Today's Chattanooga families can enjoy a piece of history and the Delta Queen is the perfect place for lunch, dinner or an affordable night away from home with suites and bunk beds rooms. photo courtesy Joseph Hookey

Two Pitman arms hold the 44 ton wheel in place, each 40 feet long and weighing 20 tons together.  The 19 foot wide wheel has a diameter of 28 feet and its bucket boards have moved the boat through rivers and challenge time and the law as they continue to serve faithfully.  Massive boilers and the steam they produce power the immense wheel and the deceptively delicate calliope organ that belts out massive melodies in 32 notes from a small keyboard nestled under 32 powerful pipes.

The 1966 Safety of Life at Sea Law continues to threaten the Delta Queen’s career and the legislative response to a maritime tragedy on a wooden vessel prevents the Delta Queen from setting sail for overnight excursions.  The subject of political intrigue and contentious drama the law is still subject to debate.

Chattanoogans have seen high drama on the Tennessee River as the stretch of water from Maclellan Island to Brown’s Ferry has seen shipwrecks, furtive fugitives and the infamous “Cracker Line” during the Civil War rebel siege.  Today’s underwater adventurers might find the skeletons of Federal pontoon boats sunken after General “Baldy” Smith opened a “Cracker Line” of hard tack biscuits, troops and supplies.  An enterprising engineer, the Federal general improved his standing with General Ulysses S. Grant by connecting pontoon boats across the Tennessee River to provide a supply line for starving troops.

Known to Southerners as the “Chicken Thief” the first steamboat called The Chattanooga was captured and put into service by the Federal army. Its later namesake capsized near Ross’s Landing in 1918,  and finally sank in 1920 in12 feet of water on the North side near Coolidge Park.  The Chattanooga shares its underwater grave with the steamboat Tellico and the bones of the other vessels who are a part of Chattanooga’s sunken history.