Island Queen

The first Island Queen in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1896
History
USA
Name:	Island Queen (first iteration)
Owner:	Lee H. Brooks, Coney Island Company
Operator:	Sterling McIntyre, James DuPuy
Route:	Ohio River, Mississippi River, Cincinnati to Coney Island
Builder:	Cincinnati Marine Railway Co.
Launched:	May 16, 1896
In service:	1896
Out of service:	April 27, 1922
Fate:	Severe structural damage sustained by fire
Status:	Presumably scrapped
General characteristics
Type:	Paddle steamer
Length:	281.4 ft (85.8 m)
Beam:	42.6 ft (13.0 m)
Depth of hold:	8.5 ft (2.6 m)
Decks:	3 cabin deck
Propulsion:	Compound non-condensing steam engines, 20's, 35', 9 ft reach. Six boilers, 42x24 ft. Side-mounted paddlewheel
Capacity:	Presumably about 4,100 passengers

The Island Queen was a series of two American sidewheeler steamboats built in 1896 and 1925 respectively. Both vessels were passenger carriers cruising along the Mississippi and Ohio rivers as both an excursion boat and tramp steamer . The first Island Queen burnt down in 1922 in a fire which destroyed several other vessels. The second Island Queen was destroyed in 1947 when its Chief Engineer, using a welding torch, accidentally cut into her fuel tank. This final iteration of the Island Queen was reduced to its steel frame. The boat was scrapped by a local company.

The first Island Queen was a Sidewheel excursion wooden hull steamboat built in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1896. She was owned by Coney Island Company and used to ferry passengers between Cincinnati and Coney Island amusement park. She was christened May 16, 1986 by the daughter of Lee H Brooks, Coney Island Company's chairman. In off-seasons when the park was closed she operated as a tramp steamer on the Mississippi and Ohio rivers, going as far downstream as New Orleans. On April 27, 1922 her forward hurricane deck collapsed, injuring 27 children and paralyzed one. That same year on November 4, Island Queen was severally burned and decommissioned after a fire engulfed several steamboats in Cincinnati harbor.

The second Island Queen was a steel hull sidewheeler built in Midland, Pennsylvania, starting 1923. She was fully completed and christened in Cincinnati by her owners, the Coney Island Company on April 18, 1925. Like her predecessor boat, Island Queen was used for excursion to Coney Island amusement park and tramping between New Orleans, and as far upstream as Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. There at Pittsburgh, her chief engineer struck her fuel tank with a welding torch, eventually reducing Island Queen to her steel structure, and killing 19 crew. No passengers were aboard at the time of the fire.