Posted on 12/12/2017 11:05:30 AM PST by iowamark
Designated one of the eleven most endangered historic places by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the Delta Queen sits rotting on a dock in Houma, La.
This despite the fact that its owners have pledged to invest more than $10 million in repairs and upgrades as soon as both houses of Congress act.
But a push in Congress seeking to restore this last overnight, passenger steamboat to service faces strong cross currents. A lobbying campaign by the U.S. Coast Guard and one of the 90-year-old Delta Queen’s potential competitors, American Cruise Line owner Charles Robertson, has kept the “exemption” legislation moribund for the last three years.
Delta Queen was built in 1927 to make the San Francisco to Sacramento overnight run, relocating to the Mississippi River in the 1940s. If granted a Coast Guard Certificate of Inspection (COI) and allowed to return to travel, Delta Queen would become only the seventh overnight passenger riverboat operating on the Mississippi. Currently, most of the others in operation — those owned by ACL and its principal competitor American Queen — are reportedly nearly sold out for the next 12 months, with booking availability already narrowing for the following year. As a point of contrast, there are currently 162 Riverboats operating on the Danube River in Europe.
But an exemption for Delta Queen to operate is hung up in Congress.
An unofficial alliance of interests has prevented the enabling legislation from securing a key floor vote in both chambers, though both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives each have passed a waiver for the Delta Queen in the last four years.
At issue is the 1966 Safety at Sea (SOLAS) Act. This law prohibits boats made of mostly combustible material from taking overnight passenger trips. SOLAS makes no distinction for river vessels sailing no more than 100 yards from shoreline, with outward-facing cabins, allowing for quick evacuation if needed. But defenders of the vessel cited its 80-year “spotless” safety record and its historic value. The Delta Queen received congressional exemptions for decades to continue operating.
The last exemption ran out on October 31, 2008, and the U.S. Coast Guard opposed the waiver’s reauthorization by Congress.
This despite the fact that a USCG report the previous July 18 found the steamboat’s safety standards within highly acceptable parameters. Nevertheless, the same study acknowledged on its second page, “[T]he Coast Guard has consistently opposed legislation to prolong the service life of the Delta Queen.”
Resistance from USCG leadership has only strengthened as the years have passed, despite broad congressional support for the waiver. In his May 3, 2017 testimony before the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, Rear Admiral Paul F. Thomas framed the Coast Guard’s opposition in general terms of fire safety, saying, “I am aware of some work in Congress that would exempt Delta Queen from some provisions, specifically structural fire protection provisions. The Coast Guard is not taking any action independent of providing advice on that particular legislation. However, we do not support an exemption for any vessel that would increase the potential of fire at sea.”
Left unmentioned by the Admiral is that legislation in question — the House’s HR 1248 and the Senate’s S 89 — would restore the Delta Queen’s exemptions in exchange for a requirement in that ten percent of the boat would receive a “structural alteration” of its combustible materials each year.
That was enough for the Senate to pass their bill 85-12 in April, with bipartisan co-sponsorship. The House, though, has yet to act, despite passing a similar piece of legislation to exempt the Delta Queen from SOLAS in 2014. One of the lead opponents, Rep. John Garamendi, D-Calif., maintains, “Thousands of people have lost their lives in boats that were not safe, in boats that were made of wood. Simply put, this is a bad piece of legislation.”
His fellow Californian, David Dewey, countered, “[T]hat’s what the opponents would like you to believe! Yes, she has a wooden superstructure and a modern sprinkler system in every space, as well as a very sophisticated heat rise and smoke detection system. Every passenger cabin has immediate access to an outside deck. She is five minutes from beaching herself on the shore — which is the way steamboats ‘dock’ so she’s designed to do this. With her large stage (large enough to drive a car on) — think of ‘gangplank’ on other boats, the passengers can walk right off and not even get their feet wet. She is also taller than the rivers she runs in. The concerns for safety for a ship at sea do not apply to a riverboat such as the Delta Queen. But because the rivers are considered ‘navigable waters’ the sea regulations apply. This was and is a flaw in the law, which is why, under normal circumstances, Congress passed the exemptions from 1966 to 2008. In 2008 the head of the transportation committee refused to let the bill pass out of “his” committee, so Congress was denied a chance to vote on it. That man is no longer in Congress!”
Cornel Martin aims to make sure the exemption does pass through Congress. He served as governmental affairs director of the former Delta Queen Steamship Company in New Orleans, shepherding the exemptions for the Delta Queen through the House and Senate in the 1990s. He noted that Delta Queen’s riverboat business was always immensely profitable, and none more than its classic namesake. Money aside, though, this classic steamboat remains Martin’s passion, and he has personally spent the better part of this decade raising money to purchase the Delta Queen and put it back into service.
“It’s been part of the Mississippi River history since the mid-‘40s, and gives folks an opportunity to kind of step back in time and see America the way many of our ancestors saw her, from the river,” said Martin, now president and CEO of the revived Delta Queen Steamboat Company, LLC.
The man who negotiated to keep the boat sailing in decades past remains confident that the U.S. House will vote to let it sail again.
The onion layers of corruption in Congress work their way into every bit of fabric in American life.
I believe that at one time the Delta Queen had a unionized work force, The Seafarers International Union and perhaps other unions for the engineers and captain and mates. If I am not mistaken the company, perhaps by sale, went non union
and all the previous support from a variety of groups disappeared.
I went from Pier 39(SF) to old Sacramento on it once in the 70’s. Don’t know what happened to it. Nice way to spend the day. Bit of history.
My sister was dating the drummer of the Dixieland band that played on the Delta Queen at the time all that went down.
My remembrance of the issues behind the scenes was that the owner of the DQ was a Republican and tried to block a union takeover of their staff.
As payback, the union lobbied in Congress to pull their ticket.
As in everything, politics rears its ugly head. I suppose they now think that the political climate is different than it used to be.
With all the RINOs in office, I wouldn’t count on it.
This Queen called at the Port of St. Paul, MN every year, sometimes twice each season. I would get a call for 30,000 gallons of hot black oil, to be delivered dockside by truck.
The USCG insisted we have three men to make the oil transfer. One standing by the truck control pump. Another looking down from atop the truck with the man way open and one more guy aboard the Queen at the hose connection, all with radios.
This was one more than required on the Great Lakes...
I once worked as a travel agent in the 1970s, and my clients all loved the Delta Queen.
There any number of businesses that become viable if they are exempted from paws that apply to all the others. Why does this one merit special treatment. Boat fires were tragic back in the day but people should be free to die in the manner of their choosing so drop the law entirely.
Even though that race is obviously rigged, I miss having this boat as the Belle of Louisville’s opponent in The Great Steamboat Race - the replacements haven’t even been true steamboats that run against the Belle. Maybe it can return to the race one day if Congress will just allow it to be repaired. It is ridiculous - someone wants to fix an old boat and use it, but Congress has to give permission?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p04CB7_cYrM
Video from the last year The Delta Queen was in The Great Steamboat Race in 2008. It had been in the race every year up to that point since 1963.
Good article and pics!
A daughter of ours got married in the late ‘80s. The guy’s father had been the Manager of Sales for the Delta Queen for about two decades. He booked a lot of groups and arranged some outings at various stops. He also traveled with them on each trip. Told us some interesting stories, but that was about 30 years ago and I don’t recall the details.
Water turns cold and gets to freezin'
Before you even know it, the old girl's easin'
Away from her berth, 'round by the point, and out of our view.
Off in the mist her engine's poundin',
Back on the on the banks that old horn's soundin',
A little "Goodbye";
A little "I'll do what I must do".
Great for tourism in Red Wing,MN.
One of the scenic tourist stops on the river.
As payback, the union lobbied in Congress to pull their ticket.
The owner of the Delta Queen was the Majestic America Line, which is still in business and operate six or seven river boats on the Mississippi and the West Coast. If it was the union that did the Delta Queen in then how could there be a union effort on one ship and not the others?
The Delta Queen is an old ship needing a lot of money to upgrade and a lot to operate. Union or not, it was probably hard to make money with her only carrying 177 passengers. Other river boats carried over 440.
It was for all of their ships but DQ was the only one affected.
It was the only wooden ship that was getting an exception.
By the 1970s, the Delta Queen was already on the Mississippi. The sister vessel, Delta King, remained on the west coast and is now a floating hotel. Both have interesting histories and should be preserved.
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