Amazing Feats on Board the Steamer Dubuque

A Vintage Photos Theme Park posting for the topic of hands/feet (a photo in which hands or feet are prominent)--if you have both, please feel free to post 2 photos.

This jolly bunch documented their trip on board the steamer Dubuque by writing "STR DUBUQUE" on the bottom of their shoes and then propping their feet up for the photo (mouse over the image for a better view of the shoes). If you look closely enough, you may be able to see a faint erased "S" on the "T" shoe. Notice also the steamboat's smokestack, which is located behind the boy on the right. Part of the boat's decorative trim is visible to the right of the smokestack, too.

This Dubuque was the fourth and last steamboat with that name, according to the Encyclopedia Dubuque. The description for a postcard in the collection of the Davenport Public Library (see Steamer Dubuque on Mississippi River) provides some additional details about this Dubuque, which was "a stern wheel packet steamboat originally named Pittsburgh and built at Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1879. It was rebuilt at Dubuque, Iowa, in 1896 for the Diamond Jo Line and renamed Dubuque. The boat sank in 1901 but was raised and Streckfus Steamers [another steamboat company] took over. In 1919-1920 it was converted to an excursion boat and renamed Capitol."

Given that chronology, it seems likely that this photo was taken sometime in the 1900s or 1910s. Whatever the date, I'd wager that this photo was a shoe-in for the funniest one taken of this bunch during their excursion on the steamer Dubuque.