Resting here in Old Sacramento, the Delta King is a 285-foot-long (87 m) sternwheel steamboat. She is the sister ship of Delta Queen, built in Glasgow, Scotland and in Stockton, California for the California Transportation Company's service between Sacramento and San Francisco. Steel for her hull — up to the underside of number 2 deck — and her steam engines were ordered in April 1924 as Yard No.1168 from William Denny & Brothers on the River Leven, adjoining the River Clyde at Dumbarton, Scotland, and shipped on 8 November that year.
Her paddle wheel shaft and cranks were supplied by Krupp Stahlwerke AG of Germany. Denny persuaded the owners to adopt the builder's own steel-girder structure, so the traditional hog chains were dispensed with. Shipped in pieces to Stockton in November 1924, she was assembled and completed by California Transportation and entered service in 1927, continuing until 1940.
After wartime service with the United States Navy she served as an accommodation ship at Kitimat, British Columbia in the 1950s, then returned to California for static use, where she remains as a hotel, restaurant and venue. Notice the length of her hull and the turn of her sternwheel resting in Old Sacramento.