I am confused. Both the Delta Queen and the Delta King were Sacramento River Boats, plying the waters of the Delta between San Francisco and Stockton and Sacramento.

In the 1930's, Governor Rolfe would occasionally charter the Queen or the King and entertain various officials and dignitaries with an overnight cruise from Sacramento to SF, returning on the following day. My father's group, the Sierra Ranch hands, was the governor's orchestra of choice, and they often made the trip to furnish entertainment and music for dancing.

Both boats were retired toward the end of the thirties, the Queen spending the war years tied up to a dock on the Sacramento riverfront and the King serving as a floating power generting plant for an aluminum smelting operation on the coast of British Columbia. After the war, the Queen was bought by some Mississippi tourist/gambling interests and after being refurbished ventured through the Canal and into Mississippi waters, where I believe her homeport is Louisville. I understand she engages The Belle Of Louisville in an annual race at the time of the Kentucky Derby. Within the last 15 years the King has been saved from an inglorious end at Kittimat, BC, and returned to Sacramento where she was refurbished and serves as a floating restaurant on the riverfront and an historic link to California's past.

I have confirmed the fact that no other Mississippi river boat ever bore the Queen's name. I would dearly love to know what year the "Delta Queen Waltz" was written. I never heard of it and it is not in any of my father's orchestral arrangements. Thanks for any info you can provide.

Spud