A genuine diesel-powered paddle wheeler, the Creole Queen, motors toward the Gulf of Mexico. The Creole Queen is a 1,000-passenger paddlewheel riverboat operating out of the Port of New Orleans. It was built by Halter Marine at Moss Point, Mississippi along the lines of a turn-of-the-century sternwheeler and was commissioned in September 1983. That is, it's almost new. The Creole Queen is an authentic paddle wheeler, but is powered by a diesel electric system rather than by steam.