Stepping aboard a paddle-wheeler is like stepping back in time. At the port of Cincinnati, Ohio, "Tall Stacks," a city heritage celebration, brought 17 grand ladies of riverboat royalty together, including the Delta Queen, Creole Queen, Island Queen, River Queen and the biggest of them all, the Mississippi Queen (figure A).Built in 1976, the Mississippi Queen is just a youngster, but she's dressed all in Victorian finery (figure B). This floating palace has a peak cruising speed of 11 miles an hour, just fast enough to take passengers back to the days of Mark Twain.
She can carry 436 passengers and a crew of 160. Cabin attendants are responsible for keeping 208 staterooms clean. They strip and remake beds and during cruises provide turndown service at bedtime, as well as cleaning bathrooms and providing fresh towels. The furniture, both antique and reproduction, is polished and the carpets vacuumed. Twelve cabin attendants each provide for the needs of 17 to 18 rooms. Laundry is done daily for towels and dining linen; bed linens are done twice weekly. Porters do their share of duties also, including keeping the grand staircase looking grand. Polishing the staircase includes lots of polish and teamwork (figure C).Cruises aboard the paddleboat can range from three to 11 nights, and with that many people coming and going, even this grand lady can sometimes use a little touchup. Big cleaning projects are done once a year. Each boat can be down for two to six weeks, allowing the opportunity to paint, replace carpet, clean the draperies and chandeliers and do any other major cleaning that might be needed while passengers are not onboard.
So, whether she's cruising the waterways or sitting in port, there's a lot of work to be done aboard a paddleboat. Steam might keep her moving along the river, but people power keep things flowing smoothly onboard. From the pilot house all the way back to the paddle wheel, the crew works to keep the old-fashioned elegance worthy of a queen (figure D).
Tip: If you have brass to clean at your home, use a mixture of lemon juice and salt to restore luster. You'll know it's solid brass if it's gold on both sides. If it's brass plated, just buff with a fabric-softener sheet to keep it looking like new.
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