Island Queen (1925 steamboat)

Island Queen was built in parts beginning in 1923. Midland Barge Company of Midland, Pennsylvania built her steel hull, designed as a matched pair with the steamboat Cincinnati for the Louisville & Cincinnati Packet Company and John W. Hubbard. After taking delivery on the hull and naming the vessel Louisville, the owner instead resold it to the Coney Island Company.^[1] Coney Island Company finished the boat in Cincinnati on April 18, 1925.^[2] The new Island Queen measured 285 feet (87 m) long and could carry 4,000 people. The 1,000-ton sidewheeler was powered by oil-burning steam engines with six boilers. It was fully completed and christened in Cincinnati by the Coney Island Company on April 18, 1925.^[3]

Like her predecessor, Island Queen was used for excursions to Coney Island amusement park and tramping between New Orleans, and as far upstream as Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Coney Island Company hired musicians to entertain the passengers. Sidney Desvigne, a coronet player from New Orleans, recruited musicians from his hometown to perform on excursions for the Cincinnati market. In 1929, his band included Henry Julian, Ransom Knowling, Walter "Fats" Pinchon, Percy Servier, and Gene Ware.^[4]

While in Pittsburgh, on September 9, 1947, her chief engineer struck her fuel tank with a welding torch, causing a fire and a series of explosions that eventually reduced Island Queen to her steel structure, and killed 19 crew. No passengers were aboard at the time of the fire, but about 40 members of the crew were aboard.^[3] Force from the explosions could be felt throughout downtown Pittsburgh, shattering windows in nearby buildings. There were even reports of people being knocked down on streets close to the dock.^[5]

• Island Queen steamboat The Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County.
• Island Queen (steamboat) Indiana Memory Digital Collections.