Duck boat tours

Origins at Wisconsin Dells

Duck tours began with surplus World War II DUKW amphibious trucks. At Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin, Milwaukee businessman Mel Flath teamed up with Bob Unger, a veteran who owned a DUKW, and with Helen Raab and Herman Breitenbach, who owned land along the Wisconsin River and Lake Delton. They gave their first land and water sightseeing ride in the summer of 1946 ^[2]. Guinness World Records lists Flath and Unger's company as the first duck tour ^[1].

According to the operator's own history, the Dells business ran 37 Ducks by the following season. Flath managed the tours through 1952 and then sold them to Dr. R.O. Ebert, who sold them after the 1955 season to a group of local boat tour operators. The tour took the name Original Wisconsin Ducks in 1956, and the company now reports a fleet of 95 vehicles ^[2].

Spread to cities

Boston Duck Tours made its first trip on October 4, 1994, leaving from the Massachusetts State House with four World War II vehicles. By 2024 it ran 28 purpose-built amphibious tour vehicles and reported more than 12.5 million guests in total ^[3].

Ride the Ducks began in Branson, Missouri, and became both a tour operator and a vehicle builder. It built lengthened DUKWs known as stretch ducks and new vehicles known as truck ducks, and its tours ran in cities including Seattle (1997 to 2020), Philadelphia (2003 to 2016) and Stone Mountain, Georgia (2003 to 2018) ^[4]. Herschend Family Entertainment bought the company in 2004, and Ripley Entertainment bought the Branson operation in December 2017 ^[4].

Accidents and official findings

On May 1, 1999, the Miss Majestic, a converted DUKW, sank in Lake Hamilton near Hot Springs, Arkansas. Thirteen of the 21 people aboard died, including three children. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) found that the probable cause of the flooding and sinking was the failure of the operator, Land and Lakes Tours, Inc., to adequately repair and maintain the vehicle. It named as contributing factors the lack of reserve buoyancy in DUKWs converted for passenger service and inadequate Coast Guard oversight, and it found that a continuous canopy roof trapped passengers inside the sinking vehicle ^[5].

On July 7, 2010, a sludge barge towed alongside the tugboat Caribbean Sea struck the anchored DUKW 34 on the Delaware River at Philadelphia. Two of the 37 people aboard died. The NTSB found that the tug's mate failed to keep a proper lookout, partly because he was distracted by repeated use of a personal cell phone and a company laptop. It also faulted the duck operator's maintenance and the decision to anchor in an active shipping channel ^[6].

On September 24, 2015, a Ride the Ducks of Seattle vehicle collided with a motorcoach on the Aurora Bridge in Seattle. Five motorcoach passengers died and 71 people reported injuries. The NTSB traced the crash to a failure of the vehicle's left front axle housing, caused by improper manufacturing by Ride the Ducks International, with inadequate maintenance by the Seattle operator contributing. It also found that the duck vehicle lacked adequate crash protection for its occupants ^[7].

On July 19, 2018, Stretch Duck 7, a modified World War II DUKW operated by Ripley Entertainment as Ride The Ducks Branson, sank on Table Rock Lake near Branson, Missouri, when a derecho, a fast-moving windstorm, struck the lake. Seventeen of the 31 people aboard died, the deadliest of these accidents ^[8]. The NTSB found that the probable cause was the company's continued operation of water tours after a severe thunderstorm warning had been issued; waves then flooded the vehicle through a bow air intake hatch that was not weathertight. The board said the Coast Guard's failure to require sufficient reserve buoyancy contributed to the sinking, and that its ineffective action on escape from vessels with fixed canopies contributed to the loss of life ^[8]. Ripley announced in 2019 that the Branson tours would close permanently ^[4].

Outside the United States, in Canada, four passengers died when the amphibious tour vehicle Lady Duck sank in the Ottawa River near Gatineau, Quebec, on June 23, 2002 ^[13]. In England, after a converted DUKW sank in Liverpool in 2013 and another caught fire on the Thames, investigators found that the vehicles had not been properly approved for passenger service in 2000; no one was badly hurt ^[14].

Safety recommendations and new rules

After the Miss Majestic sinking, the NTSB asked the Coast Guard to require reserve buoyancy in DUKWs and to deal with the danger of fixed canopies. Those recommendations were closed as unacceptable in 2008, largely because no action was taken. In November 2019, before finishing its Branson investigation, the board again urged the Coast Guard to require enough reserve buoyancy and, for vessels without it, to require removal of canopies, side curtains and their frames while on the water ^[9].

The NTSB adopted its final report on Stretch Duck 7 at a board meeting held online in April 2020 ^[10]. It asked the Coast Guard to require forward hatches that can be secured on the water, to revise its guidance (NVIC 1-01) on operating in imminent severe weather and escaping a rapidly sinking vessel, and to review weather training for small passenger vessel masters. It asked the Branson operator to adopt a firm go or no-go policy for bad weather and to review its life jacket procedures ^[8].

Congress then wrote duck boat measures into the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2023, signed on December 31, 2022. The law directed the Coast Guard to begin a rulemaking within six months on passive reserve buoyancy, watertight compartments and weather limits, and to set interim requirements within 180 days ^[11]. The Coast Guard issued an interim rule in September 2023. Operators must remove canopies and window coverings on the water or fit canopies that do not block escape, have passengers wear life jackets when canopies are removed, reduce hull openings, fit extra bilge pumps, at least four bilge alarms and emergency underwater lights, and check watertight integrity before each departure ^[12].

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