U.S. waiver last hope for Delta Queen to cruise again

The Delta Queen is tied up on the North Little Rock side of the Arkansas River during a June 7, 2007, visit. Its new owners hope to begin offering overnight cruises on the Mississippi River, but they’ll need government permission.
The Delta Queen is tied up on the North Little Rock side of the Arkansas River during a June 7, 2007, visit. Its new owners hope to begin offering overnight cruises on the Mississippi River, but they’ll need government permission.

WASHINGTON -- After nearly a decade away, the Delta Queen paddle-wheeler passed through Helena-West Helena on Friday.

The nearly 90-year-old steamboat is being towed to its new owners in Louisiana for $5 million in repairs and, if Congress allows, a chance to cruise the nation's waterways again.

It has been moored in Chattanooga, Tenn., as a floating hotel since 2008, but the boat's new owners hope that this year Congress will finally approve legislation allowing the boat to cruise the Mississippi and Arkansas rivers again by 2016.

Cornel Martin, a part owner of the boat, was "anxiously anticipating her arrival" Friday in Louisiana. He worked on the vessel from 1993 to 2004.

"She's got a lot of history and a lot of nostalgia about her, and she's still got a lot of life that's left in her, so hopefully, Congress can see their way into letting her cruise again and giving Americans and international visitors that opportunity to see America from the decks of a 1927 steamboat," he said. "It would be a shame to lose that piece of our history."

Completed in 1927, the Delta Queen ran a route through the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta until 1940. The boat and its twin, the Delta King, were used as emergency hospital transports for the Navy during World War II. In 1947, the Delta Queen was sold as war surplus to a Cincinnati family and was tugged through the Panama Canal to New Orleans to be used as a cruise ship on the Mississippi and Ohio rivers.

The Delta Queen was nearly dry-docked after Congress passed the Safety of Life at Sea Act of 1966, which prohibits most wooden boats from carrying passengers overnight. A series of exemptions allowed the Delta Queen to keep operating until 2008.

The boat's backers have been working ever since to get another waiver.

The steamboat is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is classified as a National Historic Landmark. It also has recently been designated by the National Trust for Historic Preservation as a National Treasure.

On March 4, U.S. Rep. Steve Chabot, R-Ohio, filed legislation to grant a new exemption to the Safety of Life at Sea Act. He said Congress had intended the law to apply only to oceangoing ships.

"The Delta Queen, because of its size was the only boat in America that it applied to," Chabot said."The Delta Queen is really one of a kind as far as its size goes. It is a steel hull and wooden superstructure, and that was the problem."

Over the years, Congress renewed the exemption nine times, until the Seafarers Union dropped its support because the boat's owners had decided to stop using union workers.

"We couldn't get an exemption through at that point because the unions opposed it and so a lot of the Democrats opposed it," Chabot said.

Last year, the exemption was approved by a 280-89 vote in the Republican-controlled House, but it wasn't taken before the full Democratic-controlled Senate for a vote in the whirlwind final days of the session.

Just having new owners will have a large effect on whether the exemption is approved, Chabot said.

"They've resolved the issue with the union," he said. "They have committed to making upgrades, so they are going to bring it up to whatever standards are necessary to satisfy the Coast Guard."

The Coast Guard would have to certify that the boat meets safety requirements and standards before it could resume travel.

Martin said the new owners plan to use union workers.

"That was unfortunate, and it won't be repeated, at least as long as we own the vessel," Martin said.

The Seafarers Union is on board with the exemption now, spokesman Jordan Biscardo said.

"We are in favor of this specific waiver for the Delta Queen, and we are looking forward to working with the new owners to see the vessel moving again ," he said.

Martin was among those lobbying Congress to approve the exemption last year.

"The owners at the time had no interest in returning the vessel to cruise service," Martin said. "While we lobbied Congress last year to get the congressional exemption, we didn't actually own the vessel, so I think in some people's minds there was some hesitancy in moving the legislation forward."

Martin and five other people make up the Delta Queen Steamboat Co., which bought the boat Feb. 17. He said they are committed to making repairs and resuming travel.

If allowed to carry overnight passengers again, the Delta Queen will resume the routes it took for 60 years, traveling from New Orleans to Pittsburgh or St. Paul, Minn.; to Tulsa on the Arkansas River, to Nashville and Chattanooga on the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers, and even to Galveston, Texas, Martin said.

That could mean stops in Helena-West Helena, Pine Bluff and Little Rock.

"She covered a vast majority of the inland rivers throughout America's heartland and Deep South, so I would expect that she would operate on that same itinerary," Martin said.

Martin said the plan is to begin $1.2 million in renovations and restoration, including work on the cabins and public spaces, and wait for Congress to approve the exemption before starting $3.8 million in marine repairs.

"It's going be very difficult to secure financing for that part of the repair job until the congressional exemption is approved, but in the meantime we're going to be working on the hotel side," he said.

If Congress won't grant the exemption, the Delta Queen could be run as as a hotel again as it was in Chattanooga, Martin said. But that is a last resort.

"That's why we're focusing on the hotel repairs first, but clearly the Delta Queen needs to be running on the rivers again," Martin said. "That's our goal."

Martin said once the Delta Queen reaches Houma, La., and restorations begin, he expects to spend a lot of time lobbying for the exemption on Capitol Hill.

U.S. Rep. Rick Crawford, R-Ark., whose district stretches down the Delta, called the boat a symbol of the "golden age of the Mississippi River." He said he's hoping the boat would stop in Helena-West Helena and that it would help spur redevelopment there.

"That could be a really neat stop," he said. "It could dock there and people could get off and visit the downtown area in Helena."

Metro on 04/04/2015

Upcoming Events