A Singapore "tour-duck" in water

Montreal Amphi-bus

A "Duck Tour" in London

Duck tours, or DUKW tours, are tours that take place on purpose-built amphibious tour buses or military surplus DUKWs and LARC-Vs.

Duck tours are primarily offered as tourist attractions in harbor, river and lake cities, such as Austin, Baltimore, Belfast, Boston and Barnstable, Massachusetts, Branson, Chattanooga, Cincinnati-Newport, Dublin, Halifax, Hot Springs, Arkansas, Liverpool, London, Malacca, Malaysia, Miami, Osaka, Ottawa, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Portland, Maine, Qingdao,^[1] Rotorua,^[2] San Francisco, Seattle, Singapore, South Lake Tahoe, Toronto, Washington, DC, and Wisconsin Dells. Since 2010 and 2011 respectively two modern touring car buses (coaches) operate amphibious bus and boat services in Budapest, Rotterdam and Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

Duck tours, whether using actual DUKWs or modern amphibious tour buses, are generally light-hearted, with drivers frequently wearing outlandish hats or costumes, and onboard PA systems frequently outfitted with humorous sound effects.^{[citation needed]}

Origin [edit]

The first "duck tour" company was started in 1946 by Mel Flath and Bob Unger in Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin. Flath's company has changed ownership since, but is still in operation under the name Original Wisconsin Ducks. His family continues to operate a duck company called the Dells Army Ducks in the Wisconsin Dells Area. The various duck tour companies in Wisconsin Dells remain the most famous examples of this type of attraction.^{[citation needed]}

Regional [edit]

The Boston Celtics celebrated their 2008 championship, the New England Patriots celebrated their championships and the Boston Red Sox celebrated their 2004 and 2007 World Series victories with a parade of 17 DUKWs carrying members of the team over land and across the Charles River. The Boston Bruins also celebrated their 2011 Stanley Cup title with a duck boat parade.

The Seafair Pirates in Seattle use a DUKW "Moby Duck" modified to look like a Spanish Galleon as their primary means of amphibious transport.

Liverpool's 'Yellow Duckmarine' tours [1] (as at June 2009) has 4 DUKWs, of which one saw service in the D-day landings.

Viking Splash Tours in Dublin [2] operate 6 Dukws in Dublin City using a Viking theme as a basis for the tour encouraging passengers to wear Viking helmets and 'raid' the city by roaring at 'the Celts'.

There is also a Duck offering rides [3] at Instow in Devon. It was built on Jersey in 1998 and operated as a ferry taking passengers to Elizabeth Castle until 2006. The operator in Jersey had three - the other two have gone to Krakow and Berlin.

Almost all have since been repainted, and given modern diesel engines and some have enclosed tops, making them more resemble conventional buses. Others are warm-weather only, open-air vehicles, with an optional canopy. Most require a bus-type Public Service Vehicle license and a passenger-use boat license.

In Australia at the RainForeStation nature park at Kuranda in Queensland a fleet of DUKWs are used to take visitors through a typical rain forest environment. The DUKWs travel along a tight twisty track through the forest before entering a small lake where their amphibious capabilities are demonstrated.^[3]

Incidents [edit]

Fatal incidents [edit]

In 1999 an unregulated DUKW sank in Hot Springs, Arkansas, killing 13 of the 20 people on board.^[4] The U.S. Coast Guard has since followed the lead of Boston Duck Tours to improve overall safety regulations.^{[citation needed]}

On 23 June 2002, a cruise on the Ottawa River in Ontario, Canada, ended with the sinking of the Lady Duck, an amphibious vehicle converted from a Ford F-350 truck. Six passengers, the driver and the tour guide escaped, but four passengers were trapped under the sunken vehicle's canopy and drowned. A gasoline-powered Mercruiser inboard/outboard motor at the rear was used for water-borne propulsion.^[5] A review found problems with regulating such vehicles, defects in the makeshift design and emergency procedures.

On July 7, 2010, a regulated and modern Ride the Ducks amphibious bus (based on the original design), was disabled by an engine fire and later run over by a barge on the Delaware River in Philadelphia. The operator of the tug pushing the barge was on his personal cell phone. Before the accident the Ride The Ducks captain made numerous calls to the tug to get the tug to change course. Those calls were heard and rebroadcast by other vessels, but there was no response from the operator of the tug.^[6] Thirty-three passengers and two crew members were quickly recovered, but two passengers, a 20-year-old man and a 16-year-old girl, both part of a tour group from Hungary were killed.

Non-fatal incidents [edit]

On March 30, 2013 a duck boat of The Yellow Duckmarine, Liverpool sank in the Salthouse Dock. The vehicle had been on a tour and just before it sank had evacuated passengers onto a pontoon. There were no recorded injuries.^[7]

There had been previous incidents with The Yellow Duckmarine after a bearing collapsed in 2010 leading to four passengers, including an 80-year old being taken to hospital.^[8]

Trademark [edit]

The phrase "duck tour" and the duck cartoon have been deemed generic and not trademark-able by the First Circuit in the United States.^[9]

External links [edit]

Buses portal

• Boston Duck Tours
• Halifax Harbour Hopper Tours
• London Duck Tours
• Downeast Duck Adventures - Portland, Maine
• Ride the Ducks of Seattle
• Seattle's Ride the Ducks!
• UK Duck Tours

References [edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Duck tours