Cool - a classic sternwheeler!
Darwin, some ideas you might consider for your deck texture -
If you're using Photoshop, you could play around with the "Grain" filter to give the deck more of a feel of wood. In the attached graphic, I used "Vertical" Grain. After applying the Grain Filter I added a touch of Noise so it wouldn't look quite so "perfect".
On the resulting grain pattern, I messed around with Levels (made it lighter, decreased the contrast), Color Balance (added some yellow and red), and very importantly, Saturation (to decrease the "vividness") to try to get something like the appearance of a wood deck seen at "scale distance". Using those three basic tools you can create incredibly different variations in moments.
If the planking outlines are a separate layer, you might try using a dark grey instead of black - it might look more subtle and more realistic.
Maybe you could search online for some photos of the kind of wood deck you want to simulate - I always find working from photos much easier than trying to imagine what textures really look like.
I grew up within sight of the Mississippi, so I will be enjoying your build! Good luck!
