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Bottle 863 - Delta King
Date Added: 23 September 2010

The DELTA KING ship in bottle was inspired after a visit to Old Sacramento and had such a compelling story I felt it was worth building in ship in bottle form! My trip to California was to visit my father and it is currently Hurricane season in Florida so I have booked a Month and a week stay in Stockton so I had plenty of time between visits from San Francisco to actually set up another work shop back at my old house. The Delta King and it sister, The Delta Queen river boats were built in Stockton in the 1920s and ran a scheduled riverboat run between San Francisco, Stockton, and Sacramento in the last great era of the Paddle wheelers. The Delta King had its engines irreversibly removed after being retired as a houseboat and barracks so all spare parts were used to keep the Delta Queen operational-and it still is! The story of the Delta King is amazing even though she was not as successful as the Queen, The King was mysteriously neglected and had sunk, raised and then Landlocked on a raised bank in Alaska, used in a Disney movie prop as a Mississippi Queen, and then while being restored in Stockton was seized and towed to Sacramento because no one legally knew who owned the boat anymore! The ship was finally won over to Sacramento where it has been permanently docked as a floating hotel and restaurant in Historic Old Sacramento. After learning all this information I began to build myself a z scale ("replica for my train set") of the steamer which I later decided to convert for entry into a bottle.- I had paid 3 visits to a local railroad hobby shop in LODI -and regret not buying z-scale passengers to put on deck! The ship type is a pancake stack up sand witch construction which required no pulling of strings. The Decks are pre-stained micro cut planking…The paddle wheel was kit bashed from HO railroad wagon wheels. The bottle was acquired from Marshals and was actually a reject but given no choice I had to circle back and get it! It is Spanish import of recycled glass with many distortions and some bubbles and a high risk of cracking while being heated up for wax- clay seas- I hate these square bottles!, Length 14 inches, 4 inches wide and 7 inches high…the opening is only 2 inches wide through the bottles neck and is generous room to place section of the vessel inside. After finally bottling the vessel I felt that my father though impressed with it deserved a better subject vessel so I sent it to the Haggins Museum gift shop where it is on public display helping to sell books on the story of the vessel. I had timely dedicated 2 weeks on the project in the time spaces between touring and boredom in the valley. - Victor Leong, Builder
Type: 1920's River Paddleboat   Maker's Name: Leong, Victor
Category: Liners   Made Where: Stockton, CA
Bottle Size: 14" x 7"   Year Made: 2010
Bottle Type: Spanish Decorative  

Links to Additional Information

Victor Leong, Artist Page


Other Bottles by this Artist
Click on a picture to view the bottle


Bottle ID: 254

Bottle ID: 766

Bottle ID: 801

Bottle ID: 1055

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