ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, December 10, 1995 TAG: 9512080021
SECTION: TRAVEL PAGE: F-6 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: BOSTON
SOURCE: STEVE SILK THE HARTFORD COURANt
Tired of the same old tours? Had enough of sightseeing that's not all it's quacked up to be? Try a Boston DUCK Tour.
These amphibious tours, in old Army vehicles equally at home on land or water, are just the thing for visitors who want to make an all-out assault on the city. The nearly two-hour tours feature drive-by sightings of every historic highlight, from the Old State House to Trinity Church, and a splashy interlude on the Charles River for a brief cruise with water views of Boston's skyline and Cambridge.
For visitors new to the city, a Boston DUCK Tour provides an easy introduction, and if there are kids in tow, this is one tour they might be able to sit still for. The DUCKs, it seems, may soon leave the city's signature swan boats in their wake.
The brightly painted, 32-foot-long DUKWs attract lots of attention at their base in front of the New England Aquarium. (A DUKW is basically a General Motors truck enclosed in a watertight shell. DUKW is a military acronym for a mouthful of the vehicle's design characteristics and has nothing to do with ducks or amphibiousness).
Thanks to the curious crowds, the tours, which are in the midst of their first full season, are usually sold out by late morning.
These old World War II-era clunkers, outfitted with life preservers, seats for 32 and a few modern amenities, still look as if they could shuttle troops and supplies to beachheads from Normandy to Iwo Jima, just as they did in the war. The DUKWs look a little ungainly. They go slow, and the front wheels go ``clunk'' in tight turns. But these funny-looking land yachts are rock-solid.
And if the vehicles are a little odd, so are their drivers. There's Captain A.L. (Amazing Lee) Courageous, in his safari clothes and animal claw necklace; Lt. Drake, the great-great-great-great-great-great-grandson of Sir Francis Drake (actually, according to the guy's license, he's Philip Morris); Capt. Covert, decked out in dead-of-night camouflage ... You get the idea.
Some of them love to wave and make quacking sounds at pedestrians as the lumbering DUKWs trundle through the city's streets, and they encourage their passengers to join in - especially when the tour hits the swank shopping and cafe epicenter of Newbury Street. Getting folks there to quack and wave back is the main goal of every tour, according to one DUKW captain.
But the silliness stops when it comes to the narrative the guides deliver while touring. In fact, a little irreverence might help the nonstop, oh-so-serious sightseeing spiel that serves as the tour's live soundtrack.
DUCK Tours concentrate on the three F's of Boston: Firsts, freedom and fun. You'll hear that the city hosted the first World Series games, see the sights where freedom was born, and have some fun. Quack, quack.
You'll learn that Boston once boasted three hills and that two of them were used to fill in the marshes and waterfront to create the city we know today. Even Beacon Hill, the city's high point, tops out at 70 feet lower today than it did 200 years ago; it, too, provided fill.
And the guides will point out a former jail that held both Capt. Kidd and Elizabeth Pain, a reputed adulteress branded with the letter A and perhaps the inspiration for Nathaniel Hawthorne's ``The Scarlet Letter.''
There's Trinity Church, the medieval-looking granite and sandstone structure regarded as one of the most beautiful architectural efforts in the United States.
And there's the reflective windows of the John Hancock Tower. Everybody look at themselves. Quack, quack.
All this is just a prelude to the moment everybody's really waiting for, the DUCK's dive into the Charles River. The DUKWs take the plunge on a little ramp near the Boston Museum of Science and hit the water with a splash worthy of a Disney ride. Then the DUCKs motor through a lock and putter along the Charles River past sailboats, windsurfers and the occasional powerboat.
The trusting captain invites any and all comers to take their hand at the wheel. There's no need to worry, top speed is about 8 mph - duck speed.
Quack, quack ...
LENGTH: Medium: 80 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: Cecilia Prestamo/Hartford Courant. The amphibiousby CNBvehicle "Beacon Hilda" makes its way down State Street on a land
tour of historic Boston. Drivers and others on these Boston DUCK
Tours often quack at people on the streets, hoping they'll quack
back. color.