The ''Songo River Queen II'' is a diesel-powered stern

paddle-wheeler A paddle steamer is a steamship or steamboat powered by a steam engine that drives paddle wheels to propel the craft through the water. In antiquity, paddle wheelers followed the development of poles, oars and sails, where the first uses were w ...

, built as a replica of the steam-powered vessels that traveled the Mississippi River and can hold up to 300 people. The paddlewheeler is known for becoming landlocked in Long Lake in September 2011, after a 20-year career on the

Songo River The Songo River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed June 30, 2011 river in Maine. The river flows from Brandy Pond at the south end of Long Lake into Sebago Lake at Se ...

, due to the construction of a fixed bridge on Naples Causeway.

History

The ''Songo River Queen II'', which was christened on Memorial Day weekend of 1982, is the successor to the ''Songo River Queen'', which burned in a midnight fire on Columbus Day weekend in 1981. The current vessel is located at the Route 302 Causeway in

Naples, Maine Naples is a town in Cumberland County, Maine, United States. It is part of the Portland–South Portland–Biddeford, Maine metropolitan statistical area. The population was 3,925 at the 2020 census, and it is home to part of Sebago Lak ...

Old Bay of Naples Bridge swung open for Songo River Queen to pass in 2010

Both the original ''Songo River Queen'' and the ''Songo River Queen II'' were built by Frank C. Gerrish Jr. The ''Queen'' has been an annual summer attraction on the Naples Causeway since 1970, making daily excursions on Long Lake as well as through the

swing bridge A swing bridge (or swing span bridge) is a movable bridge that has as its primary structural support a vertical locating pin and support ring, usually at or near to its center of gravity, about which the swing span (turning span) can then p ...

onto

Brandy Pond Brandy Pond, also known as Bay of Naples Lake, is a small lake in Naples, Maine, United States, that is connected to Long Lake by the Chute River. Brandy Pond is connected to Sebago Lake by the Songo River, which runs through Sebago Lake State ...

and through the twists and turns of the Songo River into the hand-operated Songo Locks.

References

External links

Official website of the ''Songo Queen II''
Paddle steamers Tourist attractions in Cumberland County, Maine 1982 ships Naples, Maine {{Boat-stub