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Old 09-26-2019, 04:37 AM
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The mystery of the GRAND ROMANCE (Marji's story)

Okay, so you want a little, “romance”?, or perhaps a little, “intrique” or maybe a little, “mystery”?, this is the story of the ORIGINAL river ship, “GRAND ROMANCE” (NOT to be confused with the ship of the same name currently in California) also, NOT to be confused for the river ship, “ROMANCE”, an entirely different ship of the original owners, proceeding the, “Grand Romance”.

This is also the story of Marji’s introduction to paper models, how a simple little ship, “lost it’s innocence” and went from $2.6 million dollars (U.S.) to over $41 million dollars (U.S.) as it changed hands between three of the largest, “Gaming Interest” in the country (I tread lightly)

And how it has been a, “grand romance” every since, (whether she likes it or not) let’s go retro 26 years, sit back and I’ll tell you how it all began.

At the age of 31, back in 1992 I left the Gorge and I was on a “mission”, I moved from one corner of the country to the other, from Portland Oregon to Jacksonville Florida, my mission?, to learn C.A.D.D. (Computer Aided Draft and Design) and to model the brand new river ship, “Grand Romance” in Sanford Florida.

Landing in Florida on my brother’s couch, Marji was his neighbor, while her and I are, “polar opposite” (in every conceivable way) , she and I, “hit it off” instantly as we both shared the same, “bad habits”.

Our first date and her introduction to card models was on the ORIGINAL river ship, “Grand Romance” where I was scheduled to introduce the completion of the model on board, the ship was built and owned by Bill Sternberg and his two sisters.

But wait!, I’m just, “setting the stage” as this story definitely gets dark and darker as it goes along, perhaps YOU could help me solve the, “mystery of the Grand Romance”.

Okay guys, I’m going to, “let you in” on an, “intimate moment”, here’s a little video of our very first, “date” back in 1993, (26 years ago) Me, Marji, the Grand Romance and a paper model. (she knew, going in to it that she had, “competition” in my, “sphere of interest”)

This was the very first video Marji ever took so it’s a little, “shaky”, the muzak was recorded live on site, if you look off of the stern you can see the black and white, “Romance” at dock, I’m the guy in the white shirt with fine blue stripes.

I have no idea how many were sold that day but I believe it to be quite a few.

This is about seven minutes of your life that you will never get back, Go here->

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpVPpi6pq6Y

Here are a few images pulled off of the web of the ship when it was still an, “innocent”, a, “mom and pop” operation, before it was, “corrupted” by various, “gaming interest”. (again, I tread lightly)..
Attached Thumbnails
The mystery of the GRAND ROMANCE (Marji's story)-index.jpg   The mystery of the GRAND ROMANCE (Marji's story)-indexii.jpg   The mystery of the GRAND ROMANCE (Marji's story)-k894057.jpg  
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Old 09-26-2019, 04:40 AM
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The Mystery

Okay folks, this is where. “the plot thickens”,
A brand new excursion vessel, built 1989 by Freeport Shipbuilding, Inc. in Freeport, Florida, fully outfitted for $2.65 million dollars, a beautiful ship, richly appointed inside and out.

It had a length of 135 feet, a beam of 46 feet and a draft of only 4.5 feet, built for shallow water, it had a bow thruster to aid in docking and maneuvering, the ability to literally, “turn on it’s axis”.

It had a height of 42 feet with the smoke stacks folded and when upright it had a height of 54 feet, the hull was constructed of 5/16” plate steel.

A, “faux” sidewheeler, it was powered by two, 300 h.p. Cummins diesel engines powering two 320 kw. generators, it had a cruise speed of 8 knots.

As far as capacities go, it held 5,000 gallons of fuel, 120 gallons of oil, 10,000 gallons of potable water, could seat 350 passengers but was licensed for 600.

The most notable feature by far was the richly appointed bar that occupied the entire fantail above the galley of the ship with 180 degree panoramic view windows offering spectacular sights as the ship traversed Lake Monroe and the headwaters of the St. Johns river.

As told to me by the former Secretary of the Department of Transportation for the State of Florida in Tallahassee (ret.) the story goes like this:

It being in the possession of the original owners for only five years when legalized, “river boat gambling” laws were passed in several states, suddenly making this little ship a, “hot commodity”, a, “bidding war” then ensued and the ship was sold in 1994-95 (?) to a, “gaming interest” for a substantial profit, purely speculation on my part but it may have been, “an offer they couldn’t refuse”.

The ship transverses down (up) the St. John’s river where it was then taken under tow, down the Eastern seaboard of Florida, around the Southern tip of the state and into the gulf of Mexico, eventually to a ship yard in Kenner (?) Louisiana.

It was at this shipyard where the ship was literally, “cut in half” and a 100 ft. section was added to the midship, making a once, 135 ft. ship a 235 ft. ship, the, “Gaming interest” may have spent in excess of $13 million dollars in the conversion and reappointment thereof.

It was then repainted, renamed and in transit up the Mississippi River to Marquette, Iowa (?) where it was docked as a, “Floating Casino”. and may now be named the, “Miss Marquette”, however, I’m not sure that was the original name right after the conversion or if it’s the current name now.

Long story short, in 1999 it may have been purchased by Lady Luck Gaming Corp. in Las Vegas Nevada, for a price of $41.67 million dollars from Sodat Gaming Inc. in Biloxi Mississippi only then to be sold again to C.Q. (Casino Queen) Holdings of St. Louis, Missouri.

So this brings me to the ship of the same name, “Grand Romance” that is now in Long Beach California. (Good Grief!, where to begin?)

So, this ship with the same name pops up on the west coast, totally different ship, totally different side of the continent, the original was a faux sidewheeler, this one is obviously a sternwheeler.

I could be mistaken but when this ship, “appeared on the scene” it may have not only shared the same name but once had an identical paint scheme (coloration) though it may have since been repainted and does not currently reflect it.

Apparently this, “phantom” ship has had a bit of, “troubles” since it’s inception, I can see no connection between the original and this one in California, what gives?

So you see this mystery only deepens and it leaves me with a lot more questions than answers such as:

What REALLY happened to the original ship?, where and what ship yard in Louisiana was it taken to be segmented and converted?

What is the ship’s name now and what was the ship’s name immediately following conversion?

Is it in fact in Marquette Iowa or this an entirely different ship?

What the hell is up with that California ship?, what’s that all about?, other than the name, I see no connection to the original whatsoever.

So, if any of you want to, “get your sleuth on” and answer a few of these questions, “be my guest”.

Okay guys, that’s enough of this, “nonsense”, let’s talk a little bit about Marji and the model as this is where it goes from, “strange” to downright, “odd”.

Here are a few images of the “Miss Marquette” a.k.a. “Lady Luck Casino”. pulled from the web.
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The mystery of the GRAND ROMANCE (Marji's story)-56f73fa2e8bae.image.jpg   The mystery of the GRAND ROMANCE (Marji's story)-1349_casino-lady-luck-marquette-mcgregor.jpg   The mystery of the GRAND ROMANCE (Marji's story)-12227770_904137663013737_7645810750323298470_n-750x400.jpg   The mystery of the GRAND ROMANCE (Marji's story)-s-l500.jpg  
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Old 09-26-2019, 04:43 AM
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Why

This is where things get odd, as some of you may know, Marji and I are currently going through a number of previously un-published, large format prints, most recently the, “Three Friends”, this particular print is definitely an, “odd-ball”,originally printed in size, 14” x 17” (35.56 x 43.18 cm).

So, “digging through this pile”, Marji comes to me one morning and says: “What about the Grand Romance?, why don’t you publish that?”

I was aghast!, “the Grand Romance?, I don’t have the time to completely re-draw and digitize that, it was hand drafted, pen and ink, hand cut color separation, it’s a very primitive print by today’s standards, why would you want to publish that?”, (as I had completely forgotten all about it)

Her reply was, “No!, publish it just the way it is!, which would you rather have?, a hand drawn Picasso?, or a computer generated Monet?, I’d rather have the hand drawn Picasso!”, she finished by saying, “It’s my most favorite model of all time”, I found this odd because I considered it my LEAST favorite model. (of all time)

Back in 1993, the, “latest, greatest” developments were the GUI (Graphic User Interface), windows 3.1, “iconography” and “AOL”, this was a BIG departure as we has always worked in DOS prior to that, simple text based commands.

I remember a colleague of mine telling me, “don’t bother with windows, it’s just a passing fad, stick to DOS” (boy was that guy wrong!)

This model was no exception as you can see on the illustrations, parts of notation were marked by a simple, “exclamation point”.

Here are a few images showing the cover sheet and illustrations, it includes plans for polymer display case.
Attached Thumbnails
The mystery of the GRAND ROMANCE (Marji's story)-romance-cover-01.jpg   The mystery of the GRAND ROMANCE (Marji's story)-romance-cover-02.jpg   The mystery of the GRAND ROMANCE (Marji's story)-romance-illus-01.jpg   The mystery of the GRAND ROMANCE (Marji's story)-romance-illus-02.jpg  
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Old 09-26-2019, 04:45 AM
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Parts

This too was printed on a four drum, offset press, approximately 500 copies were printed by Romance Inc., additional distribution was done by PMI.

It’s only 89 parts on six parts sheets, I did nothing to change the scale but did re-format by, “splitting the sheets”, so it could be printed on, “legal size”, 8.5 in x 14 in. (21.59 cm x 35.56 cm) card stock of your preference, it is ten pages in total.

The most notable feature of the part sheets are that it was printed on, “off-white” or, “creme” colored paper, the logic was that a printing plate would have to be made for each page just to print off-white, this was eliminated by simply printing on the off-colored paper, still, it required that 28 printing plates be made (one plate for each color on each sheet) there are also a lot of 50% screens.

Being printed on a high speed press, there was a slight issue with plate registry being off in a few places, those minor imperfections are what Marji loves about it.

This was the VERY LAST model I ever drew by hand (and it shows), it was also the first model I ever drew that had the color coded sub structure.

Here are four of the six part sheets.
Attached Thumbnails
The mystery of the GRAND ROMANCE (Marji's story)-01.jpg   The mystery of the GRAND ROMANCE (Marji's story)-02.jpg   The mystery of the GRAND ROMANCE (Marji's story)-03.jpg   The mystery of the GRAND ROMANCE (Marji's story)-04.jpg  
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Old 09-26-2019, 04:48 AM
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The Model

It’s noted as being 1/144 scale, here are a few images of the assembled model, it measures when assembled, 11.25 in. (28.5 cm) long, 4 in. (10.1 cm) wide and 5 in. (12.7 cm) tall.

If any of you want to undertake this endeavor and see it through completion, you will have to admit that it’s, “quite a conversation piece”.

It is now available on ecardmodels.com and can be found here->

https://www.ecardmodels.com/vendors/marjis-models/

These images are 26 years old.
Attached Thumbnails
The mystery of the GRAND ROMANCE (Marji's story)-greleven.jpg   The mystery of the GRAND ROMANCE (Marji's story)-grone.jpg   The mystery of the GRAND ROMANCE (Marji's story)-grten.jpg   The mystery of the GRAND ROMANCE (Marji's story)-grthree.jpg   The mystery of the GRAND ROMANCE (Marji's story)-grtwo.jpg  

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