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Many have suffered through a company bankruptcy in 2001 and then, Hurricane Katrina in 2005. She will no longer pump needed revenue into the little towns and large cities that she visits up and down the Ohio, Mississippi, Illinois, Cumberland, Tennessee, Arkansas and Black Warrior rivers.
When she is gone there will be no one to replace her.
She is the last authentic steam-powered stern-wheeled overnight passenger boat on our rivers. She is the last of her breed. A vacation on her is stepping into history. It is like no vacation you have ever experienced. And one you will never, ever forget.
This is a heartfelt appeal to your readers regarding the effort to save the Delta Queen. The Delta Queen has been running on exemptions granted about every 10 years from the U.S. government since 1970. The law, which in short says no wooden superstructure vessel can carry more than 50 overnight passengers.
This law was passed in 1968 due to a fire about the Yarmouth Castle, which burned in 1965 with the loss of 90 lives. She was 120 miles from Miami and 60 miles from Nassau.
When the law was written, we assume that the fact that the Delta Queen is an inland riverboat and never out of sight of land was not taken into consideration. But somewhere along the line, some troublemaker decided the law applied to her as well, henceforth the needed exemption.
This has not been an issue since the first exemption until now.
Last year, the boat was purchased by Ambassadors International and a company was formed by the name of Majestic America Line to manage their cruise line. This year when crewing started, union labor was not hired. So now after 40 years of supporting the exemption, the Seafearers International Union has made an about face and opposes the present exemption which will be up in November 2008.
It has become apparent that unions, in particular the Seafearers International Union, owns some of our congressmen and senators, particularly those on committees having to do with transportation.
Congressman James L. Oberstar of Minnesota, chairman of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, has made it public that he will in no way allow an exemption to go through. So far, Oberstar has not even let it out of subcommittee. I am appalled!
The Delta Queen is 80 years old. She has never had any accidental loss of life on her in all those years. Her previous owners have spent countless hundreds of thousands of dollars to keep her safe from the hazard of fire including adding fire retardant coatings to her decks, using NASA developed intumescent paints and coatings on her bulkheads and ceilings, installing sprinkler systems, fire alarms have been installed in all staterooms, she has sophisticated electronic monitoring systems, her crew is highly trained in fire fighting and suppression and she has a night watchman that strolls her decks from 10 p.m. until 6 a.m., whenever there are passengers on board.
After 13 trips, I guarantee you I feel much safer on her than I do in my own home or traveling by any other mode of transportation.
Folks, it’s one thing to die a natural death. But it is another thing to let the people who should be protecting you be the ones to cause your demise.
If you agree that we have too much government and that going seven miles per hour up the river is not the safest mode of transportation then call or write your congressman and senators today. Don’t wait. The company needs plenty of time to work on the schedule for 2009.
We can’t take a chance of losing the Delta Queen forever. Her fate is in our hands to convince the House of Representatives and the Senate that she deserves to be plying our rivers for the next generation and not tethered to some bank somewhere as a hotel or museum. Do not delay, call or write today. Make your feelings known now.
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