Becky and Carroll Fitzgerald own the Lantern Queen and manage its operations out of Havre de Grace, Maryland, as a boat for public cruises and private charters. Lantern Queen is unique because it is a replica of a Mississippi paddlewheel riverboat.
“Because it is a flat-bottomed boat, the wind pushes us around like crazy. With the current, wind, and tides, a lot of calculation is involved in our operations,” said Becky. “We are carrying precious cargo—people—and often they are with us for once-in-a-lifetime events like weddings and anniversaries.”
Happily for the captains and crew of the Lantern Queen, the Susquehanna CBIBS buoy is located near where the boat docks at Hutchins Park.
“From the dock at Hutchins Park, you can see the buoy,” Becky described. “If we’re cruising at night, coming back down the river, under the Amtrak bridge, the yellow light on the buoy gives us a good reference.”
But Becky noted that the buoy is far more than a navigational feature for the Lantern Queen. Knowing exactly what the current is doing and what direction and how hard the wind is blowing is critical for a crew that will be maneuvering a flat-bottomed boat.
“The beauty of the NOAA smart buoy is that you can call from your phone in the wheel house if you’re up the river and get reports on what’s happening down the river. We and our captains check out conditions often, mostly using the mobile apps, and also on the website.”
The Lantern Queen frequently takes school groups out on the Susquehanna River and Flats. “The typical route for students leaves the dock, goes down by the Concord Point lighthouse, then across the river—most of the time, about 100 feet away from the buoy, so the kids are interested to learn about it,” Becky said. “We have pulled the buoy up on the cell phone and played it over the speaker system so they could hear the observations on temperature, wind speed, water temperature.”
Some of the captains that pilot the Lantern Queen also work moving boats around the East Coast, and they use observations from the other CBIBS buoys as they move up and down the Chesapeake.
Becky and Carroll were looking for a small business to purchase in Havre de Grace to set them up for retirement, but they couldn’t find anything—until one day, sitting at breakfast in 2007, they said “the heck with it, let’s just buy a boat.” Less than a week later, they found out the Lantern Queen was for sale. Their son is a Coast Guardsman and daughter a Merchant Mariner, so they had plenty of solid advice—and less than two months later, they bought the Lantern Queen.
As it turns out, sharing the upper Bay with their customers is a great match for their personalities—they’re definitely “people persons”!