River Boat Resurfaces as Posh Hotel

It began life 62 years ago full of hope and promise: a luxurious paddle-wheel boat that was the ultimate in travel between Sacramento and San Francisco.

Christened the Delta King, the elegant river boat hosted wild drinking parties during Prohibition and offered a touch of glamour during the Depression.

But the King fell upon hard times during the 1930s and it has taken decades to recover.

Now, what was once a floating palace of sin has become a floating hotel--replete with a museum, theater and meeting rooms designed for corporate executives.

Cruising Days Are Over

The Delta King’s cruising days are over, however. The 285-foot boat will be docked permanently at a pier at historic Old Sacramento.

A group of Northern California investors salvaged the river boat five years ago and brought it to Sacramento. So far, they have shelled out $9 million to restore it. As with most boat owners, it was far more than they expected to spend.

“Although the boat is going to make money, it’s a project they did more out of love,” said MyrnaGene Feliciello, a spokeswoman for the Delta King owners. “It will be a long time before they make back the money.”

In its new life on the Sacramento River, the Delta King will have 44 guest rooms--half the original number of staterooms. There also will be two bars and restaurants, a dance floor near the huge paddle wheel, conference facilities for 200 people and shops.

Grand Opening Set

A section of the boat was opened to the public last month, and a grand opening is scheduled for May 20. The final restoration work will be completed in June, Feliciello said.

For Walter Harvey, an architect and co-owner of the Delta King, the restoration has been the fulfillment of a lifelong ambition.

As a college student in the 1950s, he recalls driving past the aging hulk of the Delta King along the San Joaquin River in Stockton and dreaming of restoring it. He tried to buy it in the 1970s at a public auction but was outbid. Finally, he and his partner, Ed Coyne, managed to acquire the dilapidated, rotting boat in 1984.

They persuaded the city of Sacramento to build a dock for the Delta King beside the historic section of town and began rebuilding the boat.

“We had to rebuild the boat from the gunnels on up,” he said. “We’ve tried to create the feeling people would think of when they think of a river boat.”

Built in Scotland

The Delta King and its sister ship, the Delta Queen, were both built in Scotland, disassembled, shipped to California and reassembled in Stockton and Sacramento.

In 1927, at the height of the steamship era in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, they began plying the route between Sacramento and San Francisco. During the overnight trips, Prohibition was disregarded and liquor flowed freely. The guests lounged on deck chairs, danced to as many as four orchestras and played poker and whist as the boat took more than 10 hours to make the 125-mile journey.

By the mid-1930s, the combination of the Depression and an increase in automobile travel had cut heavily into the river boat business. Both vessels were docked until 1941, when the Navy took them over.

After World War II, the Delta Queen was purchased and taken to the Mississippi River, where to this day it steams between New Orleans and Cincinnati.

But the Delta King was not so fortunate. Purchased by a series of owners unable to make a profit, the King was shifted from one backwater of the delta to another. Some owners stripped the boat before reselling it, according to an article on delta river boats published by Highway Patrolman magazine.

Towed to Canada

At one point, the Delta King was towed to Kitimat, Canada, where it was used for seven years as a dormitory for employees of the Alcoa Aluminum Co.

Hauled back to California, the Delta King suffered the indignities of fires and vandalism, and then sank in San Francisco Bay, where it sat for 15 months.

A new owner raised the boat from the bottom and proposed overhauling it for housing in San Francisco, but the plan was rejected because the craft was in such bad shape.

Now, repainted white and restored to its original grandeur, the Delta King will provide a level of luxury that was not offered by the original furnishings.

The change is most evident in staterooms designed for the corporate traveler. No longer are the rooms the size of a large closet. Gone are the metal bunk beds that fit two to a room.

As Harvey said of the visitors he hopes to attract, “They would like to relive the romance of the past but they also want the comforts of today.”