War is hell, but it sure leaves behind some dandy toys. One of them, a World War II amphibious vehicle repainted slime green, is zooming around the streets and rivers of this revitalized Steel City. Its mission these days is, as they say, something completely different.
High above the pavement, on the land part of the tour, the rough-riders aboard the seven-a-day outings of Just Ducky Tours Inc., are instructed to shout “quack, quack” as they pass pedestrians who often “quack” back.
Described as “an unprecedented and entertaining new mode of transportation in Pittsburgh,” the vehicle, which was built at the tail end of World War II and saw service in Korea and Vietnam, seems ideal for a city that already uses a variety of buses, trolleys, cable inclines, bikes, cars and trains to get around its hilly and watery geography.
This is a city, intones a guide, “with more bridges than any city in the world save Venice.” So a truck-boat that can handle both streets and rivers is, note its owners, “perfectly suited for a tour which takes riders through downtown streets before splashing into the Allegheny River.”
“Like it,” said a Washington lawyer, settling in for a ride with his family, as the vehicle roared past such landmarks at the Hotel William Penn where, the guide noted, “comedian Bob Hope spent his honeymoon.”
One wondered what Hope would have had to say if, like other wide-eyed hotel guests emerging on a recent Saturday afternoon, he’d seen such a DUKW, a far cry from what historians recall as a work-horse “transport of troops and equipment from ship to shore without benefit of piers or heavy cranes.”
The name came from D, for 1942, the first year of production, U for utility vehicle, K, for front-wheel drive and W for two rear-driving axles.
Put them all together — DUKW, often called a “duck,” which could carry up to 50 fully laden soldiers or an equal amount of equipment.
These days, such vehicles, redecorated with canvas roofs to ward off a new hazard — sunshine — and refitted with comfy seats, are tourist hits in a dozen or more cities. The Pittsburgh operation is run by Michael Cohen and Christopher D’Addario, two pals from Brockton, Mass., who wanted to go into business together — and did so on July 18, their launch day.
“Ice cream was taken,” they said, reflecting on their choice of a joint venture, spawned when they spotted the vehicle they later bought while on a vacation near Montreal. It was being used to transport fishermen.
These days, they handle every ride, along with a Coast Guard certified captain who takes command on water plus a small staff which sells tickets ($12 for adults) at Station Square, a mecca for tourist-stuff collectors set up on the site of a terminal of the old Pittsburgh & Lake Erie Railroad.
“Keep your arms and elbows inside,” one of them says as a one-hour trip departs, much the same warning given to its wartime passengers.
Wheelchair accessible, the DUKW, with foam-rubber seats and a hunter-green canvas roof, speeds at up to 30 miles per hour across the historic Smithfield Street Bridge , through the city’s Golden Triangle of parks and office towers and into the Strip District which, despite its raunchy name, refers to steel fabricating plants now used to house trendy restaurants.
“It’s strange,” said Cohen, in an interview, “but there is always total silence at two points on the tour — when we enter the water and when we come out of the water. I don’t know why, but no-one says a word.”
This fall, the DUKW’s owners plan to press on until the weather turns sour, probably November, then pack it in for the season, until April. That decision that takes into consideration the fact that tourist activities, unlike war, are largely voluntary.
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Just Ducky Tours are located in The Shops at Station Square Building, just across the Monongahela River from downtown Pittsburgh. For more information call 412-928-2489.
