Title: Belle of Louisville

RivermenandRiverboats > Belle of Louisville > Belle of Louisville

Go to subcategory： Introduction To This Site—— IntroductionInformation On Other Riverboats—— Information On Other Riverboats 2Streckfus Steamers—— Streckfus Steamers IntroMazie Krebs Introduction—— Mazie KrebsThe Streckfus Brothers Introduction—— The Streckfus BrothersEarly Steamboat Days—— Early Steamboat DaysDay Of Wreckoning—— Day Of WreckoningWood To Fuel Oil—— Wood To Fuel OilMary Greene—— Mary GreeneBelle of Louisville—— Belle of LouisvilleCaptain Donald J. Sanders—— Captain Donald J. SandersJohn Hartford Tribute—— John Hartford TributeCheyenneCheyenne—— CheyenneCheyenneTommy Towboater—— Tommy TowboaterInfo On Cornelius McGee—— Info On Cornelius McGeeTidbits Of Information I & II—— Tidbits Of Information I & IICalliopes—— CalliopesFultons Folly—— Fultons FollyIf Twain Came Back—— If Twain Came BackTwains Degree—— Twains DegreeQuotes—— QuotesTwain As A Pilot—— Twain As A PilotSteamboat Pilots—— Steamboat PilotsPoints Of Interest—— Points Of InterestThe Super Flood 1937 ~Paducah~—— The Super Flood 1937 ~Paducah~The Ohio River In 1937—— The Ohio River In 1937Olde Saying—— Olde SayingMisselhornSketches—— MisselhornSketchesWrights On The Ohio River—— Wrights On The Ohio RiverFlatboats—— FlatboatsBio. Sketch-Jacob Von Scyster—— Bio. Sketch-Jacob Von ScysterShanty Boats—— Shanty BoatsGenealogy Tidbits—— Genealogy TidbitsGenealogy Of Conrad McGee—— Genealogy Of Conrad McGee††Obituaries††—— ObituariesInteresting Books—— Interesting BooksGeneral—— General DiscussionCategory

Author

Content

Fiddlinsue

Rank：none Score：220 Posts：220 From：USA Register：11/11/2008 8:17 AM

Date Posted：01/23/2009 9:51 AMCopy HTML  The Belle of Louisville's home port is Louisville, Kentucky.  She was built in 1914 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.  Her length is 190 feet and she has three decks to her.  Two of the decks are enclosed and the other one is open.  The Belle of Louisville is a riveted-steel, steam powered, sternwheel-propelled, day packet and excursion boat. The superstructure of the boat is built of wood, and the hull is supported by a hogging truss system in the traditional manner of Western River Steamboats. She was built as the "Idlewild" in 1914 by James Rees and Sons, of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The Belle started out as a ferry, then a day packet along with being an occasional excursion boat. She now only does excursions. The boiler room occupies the middle half of the deck behind partitions to port and starboard of the boilers.  Each cylindrical boiler is fired from the front with No. 4 fuel oil atomized by an air blower when starting cold, or by a steam jet when hot.  The current boilers are at least the fourth set fitted to the Belle.  She was first fitted with three return flue boilers, 44 inches in diameter and 24 feet long.  Three types of instruments indicate the level of water in the boilers.  The oldest form of instrument is a vertical row of three small spigots, called test cocks, set into the back of each boiler. The water level is found by opening each one briefly to see whether steam or water comes out.  The next oldest type, called a Van Duzen gauge for the inventor, is a clock face gauge activated by a float inside the center boiler. The third, and most modern type of water level indicator, called a sight glass, is a pipe open at the top and bottom to the interior of the boiler. Thesight glass is a heavy glass window set into the pipe through which the water level can be viewed.  The redundancy of water level indicators assures that the water will not be allowed to drop low enough to damage the boilers. The deck above the boilers is traditionally known as the boiler deck.  This deck was mostly open when the Idlewild was built, with an enclosed cabin space running down the middle. There are stairways to port and starboard aft and a single large stairway amidships between the stacks.  Men's and Women's restrooms run along the after bulkhead.  Subsequent alterations removed the cabin from the central boiler deck and replaced the entire outer railing by windows and solid metal.  A large ballroom was formed from the enclosed space.  The central portion of the overhead is raised to provide room for a row of skylights.  A band stand is aft against the lavatories.  The purser's office and a gift stand are to starboard, and a concession stand is to port, opposite the main stairway.  In 1968, an additional roof was built over the entire skylight deck.  The pilot-house is a small, glass-enclosed, house with a domed roof mounted amidships atop the Texas. The roof is ornamented by acorn finials on the four corners, and an elaborate wrought iron ornament at the peak.  The three pipe steam whistle is mounted above the pilothouse, on an iron steam pipe.  On June of 1952, the Belle raced against the Delta Queen during the celebrations surrounding the Kentucky Derby. She lost to the tune of "Goodbye Little Girl Goodbye" on the calliope of Delta Queen and a racing tradition was begun.  In 1965 the Belle was given her new boilers to increase her speed, but they failed her and were soon replaced with traditional boilers.  In the years since the races began, the golden elkhorns have been about evenly awarded to each of the two boats with tremendous hoopla surrounding the event no matter which boat wins.  The Belle of Louisville will grace Tall Stacks 2003 with her fifth consecutive appearance. She appeared in the Tall Stacks of 1988, 1992, 1995 and 1999.    This set is not linkware.  It is not in the public domain.  The image used to create this set was provided by Allen Dale and used with his permission.  The background code used for this set was provided by Liz from Beyond the Horizon.  All backgrounds and images were created by me Fiddlinsue.  All the information furnished on this page was compiled by me after reading several stories from different books.