The 'African Queen' at Key Largo

Taken on our trip to the Florida Keys in 1997.

The "African Queen" used in the 1951 film of the same name, starring Katherine Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart, at her home in Key Largo, Florida Keys.

'....let's jump back to 1912 to England where this 30-foot, steam-powered vessel was built. From England she was sent to Africa where she served as a riverboat near Stanley Falls hauling hunters and light cargo on the Ruiki River, a branch of the Congo.

In 1950, John Huston needed just such a boat for his film, found this one in Africa, and that was the beginning of her fame. Actually, it was the film's art director, John Hoesli, who found the boat--the Steam Launch (S/L) Livingstone--in Butiaba, Uganda, a town on the east shore of Lake Albert.

Renamed the African Queen, after the film's production she went back to work as a river boat.'

For more of the history of this wonderful old boat, see:

www.key-largo-sunsets.com/the-african-queen.html