She was requisitioned by the Navy during WWII. Captain Tom Greene of Cincinnati, Ohio bought her after the war and sailed her through the Panama canal and up the Mississippi. She cruised the Mississippi-Ohio river system until 2008.
Posted on 09/24/2013 12:34:26 AM PDT by iowamark
She wants to be back on the waters, where she belongs.
The Delta Queen is crippled right now, stuck in a position beneath the dignity of its river royalty -- moored to the banks of the Tennessee River and in need of some mechanical work.
Her supporters hope she'll soon be plying the nation's rivers once more like her "granddaughter," the American Queen, which was in Chattanooga on Saturday on its Civil War-themed cruise.
Travis Vasconcelos, "riverlorian" on the American Queen, said the Memphis-based boat stops in Chattanooga about once each year. American Queen guests, staff and operators visited with the Delta Queen on Saturday before heading off to St. Louis...
The Delta Queen's operators are trying to get the 86-year-old paddleboat approved for river cruising again.
U.S. Rep. Steve Chabot, R-Ohio, is working to pass a bill through the U.S. House on Wednesday that would exempt the Queen from a 1966 law barring wooden vessels from carrying more than 50 passengers overnight. Congress has passed several exemptions previously. The law doesn't affect the American Queen, which has a steel hull.
"The Delta Queen does not belong moored to a dock," Chabot wrote in a letter to supporters gatherered at a Saturday morning meeting on the boat. "She belongs to America's riverways."
Chabot wants the Queen to "return [to Cincinnati] once again," where it often stopped during his childhood, he wrote. He wants the Delta Queen to make Cincinnati its permanent home.
The Queen's previous exemption expired in 2008. In 2009 it landed in Chattanooga as a stationary hotel...
He said he feels good about the prospects for Chabot's push to get the exemption the Queen needs to get back on the water for the next 15 years -- and through its 100th birthday...
(Excerpt) Read more at timesfreepress.com ...
http://www.save-the-delta-queen.org/
“Save the Delta Queen”
http://www.deltaqueenhotel.net/#!
“Delta Queen Hotel”
When I had an office on Riverside drive in Memphis, it was always a thrill to see the Delta Queen pull in to dock for a few days. That was long ago, and I had no idea what had become of her. Those days are “gone with the wind”.
http://www.steamboats.org/steamboat-pictures/delta-queen/delta-queen-panorama-pictures.html
“Delta Queen 360° Panorama Pictures”
http://www.cruisetricks.de/galerie/index.php/flusskreuzfahrt/delta-quee
“Delta Queen picture gallery”
Unions and Democrat politicians caused her to lose her SOLAS exemption and be retired.
Lucky she wasn’t scrapped. Here’s hoping that she steams the rivers once again. She is a magnificent piece of Americana.
Built in Scotland. She crossed the Atlantic! Wow!
She was requisitioned by the Navy during WWII. Captain Tom Greene of Cincinnati, Ohio bought her after the war and sailed her through the Panama canal and up the Mississippi. She cruised the Mississippi-Ohio river system until 2008.
Got it.
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