Delta King (I)

The Delta King Hotel in Old Sacramento is a unique Sacramento treasure. The authentic riverboat plied the Sacramento River between San Francisco and Sacramento from 1927 to 1940. During World War II it served as a troop transport on San Francisco Bay. After the Second World War this vessel served as an accomodation vessel at Kitimat for workers constructing the Town and aluminum plant. After the war the Delta King became a derelict roaming the Delta, without purpose or home. It sank at Richmond in San Francisco Bay in 1982 for a period of 18 months.

In 1984 the Delta King was brought to Sacramento where it underwent an extraordinary renovation at a cost of $9 million. Today it is a beautiful floating hotel with modern lodging amenities, 2 acclaimed restaurants offering casual and fine dining, 2 professional theaters, a wine school and exceptional facilities for weddings and meetings. The steel hull was actually built by William Denny & Brother’s Dumbarton yard in Scotland. The sections were assembled on the banks of the River Clyde, then taken apart, carefully marked for reassembly and shipped by freighter to San Francisco, then barged to the construction site. Cross compound condensing engines were designed by the Charles H. Evans Company of San Francisco in 1925 but built in Scotland. Two oil-fired water tube boilers were acquired from unused, surplus machinery intended for World War I, U.S. Navy destroyers. The four deck superstructure was entirely constructed of oak, teak, mahogany and Oregon cedar, while the Main Deck freight level was constructed of hard ironbark purportedly from Siam.