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"The African Queen"

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richarddurgee
Senior Member
Username: richarddurgee

Post Number: 1956
Registered: 11-2001
Posted on Tuesday, December 16, 2008 - 08:58 pm:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

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"The African Queen" if you saw the first run of this great old movie then you go back aways to(1951).
Starring Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn with dirctor John Huston.
I first saw The Old steam boat that was the main setting of the movie under a roof in front of the Holiday Inn on Key Largo, Florida about 35 yrs ago and it was a beatiful sight to see. This past week I looked for and found the boat relegated to the side of the same Inn on a covered boat hoist in the marina. WoW what a sight it has really deteriorated from the constant salty sea air and the moisture laden marina. Not the best photos, I took these about midnight and enhanced them on photo program on computer.

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bruce
Senior Member
Username: bruce

Post Number: 187
Registered: 07-2002
Posted on Tuesday, December 16, 2008 - 09:51 pm:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

That's just criminal!!
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rustaholic
New member
Username: rustaholic

Post Number: 3
Registered: 08-2007
Posted on Wednesday, December 17, 2008 - 03:29 pm:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

That is just criminal. I'd kick my wife's car outta the garage just to store the boat! Has anyone tried to see if the hotel is willing to sell it off before it's too far gone?
That's just a really sad ending to a famous piece of memorabilia!

Craig M
Northridge, Ca
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kerrigan
Member
Username: kerrigan

Post Number: 8
Registered: 06-2008
Posted on Wednesday, December 17, 2008 - 04:15 pm:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Dick Day's friend who restored the Merlin Pearl may be a likely candidate for funding a restoration of the African Queen. Someone should send her the recent photos for inspiration.

Spence
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Brandon P
Visitor
Posted on Thursday, December 18, 2008 - 01:49 pm:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I am not sure this is the African Queen from the film. There are several of these up and down the east coast. One is in Wickford, RI, and it is reportedly the one from the film as well. There are some things on the boiler (petcocks etc.) that make me think it is from a later time period than the one in the film, or perhaps the boat has been refitted at some point. Does anyone know if there was more than one made for the filming? It is an awful shame however to let any steamboat go the road that this one has.
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ernie
Senior Member
Username: ernie

Post Number: 920
Registered: 01-2002


Posted on Thursday, December 18, 2008 - 02:10 pm:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

The boat in the movie had a single cylinder engine. Enyone got any ideas???\
Maybe something as simple as an engine change
Thoughts???
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adriaticsun
Member
Username: adriaticsun

Post Number: 18
Registered: 03-2003
Posted on Thursday, December 18, 2008 - 02:45 pm:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Hi there fellow motormen and the best of the season to you all...............
This is not the boat of the movie, there are many dif................check out yhe movie









i
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richarddurgee
Senior Member
Username: richarddurgee

Post Number: 1957
Registered: 11-2001
Posted on Thursday, December 18, 2008 - 03:34 pm:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

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I have found the present owner of the boat he inherited it some time ago-- I have his phone number and talked to his secretary he will be back in town next week, I'll see What he has to say ??
Boat is listed under Monroe County Florida National Historic Places in 1992, Structure 91001771 .
The vessel is documented and I looked into that info but nothing to substantiate its heritage only that it does have a steel hull ?

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ernie
Senior Member
Username: ernie

Post Number: 921
Registered: 01-2002


Posted on Thursday, December 18, 2008 - 03:52 pm:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Here is a link to the movie trailer on You Tube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXM5q9S8idg
There is a pic here showing a single cylinder engine
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0043265/
Here is another clip from You Tube. About half way through are a couple of quick glimpses of the engine and it doesn't look like the one that is in the boat in Florida
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DS1_dsibuIA
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ernie
Senior Member
Username: ernie

Post Number: 922
Registered: 01-2002


Posted on Thursday, December 18, 2008 - 03:59 pm:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Here is the boat rumored to be in RI. It was for a short period of time. However it appears to be the one that Richard photographed in FL
http://www.steamboating.net/page31.html
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bruce
Senior Member
Username: bruce

Post Number: 188
Registered: 07-2002
Posted on Thursday, December 18, 2008 - 09:16 pm:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

African Queen pedigree or not-it is still criminal to neglect it like that...
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scott_n
Senior Member
Username: scott_n

Post Number: 69
Registered: 02-2008
Posted on Friday, December 19, 2008 - 03:01 pm:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

The engine was changed after the movie so the boat could be usd to carry paying passengers so they could take a ride. The owner who's name I can't remember had to get permission from congress to operate a foreign built vessel in US waters. The hull was built in the UK as a railroad launch. for the ones who know George King. He worked on this engine in Frankland CT. in 1990 for the ownners father. then when he past away his son put the boat in front of his hotel.
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the_sound
New member
Username: the_sound

Post Number: 2
Registered: 03-2008
Posted on Wednesday, December 24, 2008 - 01:10 pm:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Thanks for the compliment Kerrigan. (Dick Day's friend who restored the Merlin Pearl) I would be happy to restore the African Queen.... as long as someone else provides the funding! I'm all out of money (from the Merlin Pearl) but not out of ideas! She could be great!
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larasworld
New member
Username: larasworld

Post Number: 1
Registered: 10-2011
Posted on Saturday, October 01, 2011 - 10:36 am:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

So sad,
If the owner doesn't care enough to preserve the Queen he really should sell it to a preservation group. This is the same boat used in the movie. It has been modified over the years to meet coatguard requirements so it can carry passengers. The boiler was relplaced 2 0r 3 times. The winch is missing, the foredeck was lengthened. If i owned her i would restore it back to the way it looked in the film. Anybody know what type and make boiler was used in the film.I wish somebody would go visit the Queen and make some scale drawings or measurement so model mbuilders can build an accurate model of her.
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johnoxley
Advanced Member
Username: johnoxley

Post Number: 37
Registered: 04-2010
Posted on Saturday, October 01, 2011 - 06:24 pm:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I had a ride on AQ when she was in Sydney Australia for display in a boat show. Very popular. Clearly has great social and film history significance. The riveted steel hull is technically significant but the engine and boiler setup while historic are not that authentic. She had a diesel and mock up boiler + engine for the film. A single cylinder Stephenson link reversing cast iron frame engine and vertical fire tube boiler/s installed after the film. The boiler resembles VFT and will probably need major work. The compound steam engine with turned steel columns looks nothing like the movie mockup engine - it is valuable anyway but an authentic single cylinder engine (old or new) is needed. Can someone local empty a tin of WD40 onto the engine steelwork? Most damage looks cosmetic. Repair of hull if needed is difficult as few/no yards will have skills to solid rivet such light plates into a watertight seam (or have engineering knowledge of how a riveted steel structure atains strength). You cannot simply weld in new plates to a riveted boat without straining rivets.
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richarddurgee
Senior Member
Username: richarddurgee

Post Number: 2820
Registered: 11-2001
Posted on Wednesday, May 09, 2012 - 12:16 am:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

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If you can get past the ad ?

The Old "African Queen" runs again !


http://dailynightly.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/05/07/11582782-african-queen-sails- again-six-decades-after-appearing-in-bogart-film?lite



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