Delta Queen May Steam to Pittsburgh Once Again

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
27 November 2010
By Sean D. Hamill

Given up as a docked, floating hotel two years ago, it was thought by many that the Delta Queen steamboat would never ply America's rivers again.

But it appears there may yet be another cruise in her 84-year-old wooden superstructure, and she could once again head up the Ohio River to pick up passengers in Pittsburgh.

It's possible now given one of the many twists to the outcome of this month's congressional election, and because the boat's owners are in the process of selling her to the highest and best bidder.

The company, Ambassadors International of Seattle, stopped taking bids on Monday and could have her sold by the end of the year.

Ambassador's broker has received several bids from different groups that have a variety of intended uses for her, from making her a permanent hotel, to a museum, to returning her to America's rivers as a touring vessel for passengers.

"We want to put her back out there doing what she was intended to do," said Vicki Webster, one of the principals behind Save the Delta Queen 2010, a group of Cincinnati-based investors who have bid and want to get her cruising again.

The National Historic Landmark -- the country's last steam-driven, paddle-wheeled, overnight passenger boat -- was built in Scotland in 1926 as a luxury river cruiser. She worked first on the rivers of the West Coast but was militarized in 1940 to ferry troops.

After the war in 1947 she was sold back to a private company, which hired famed steamboat pilot and historian Frederick Way of Sewickley to bring her back through the Panama Canal to a dock on Neville Island just west of Pittsburgh. There she was returned to her former glory and continued hauling passengers on America's rivers for the next 60 years.

That is, until she was docked as a non-cruising hotel in Chattanooga, Tenn., in February 2009.

Despite a healthy passenger count, she met that fate two years ago when Ambassadors' now-defunct subsidiary, Majestic American Line, which operated the Delta Queen and other boats, failed to win her another exemption to the federal Safety at Sea Act.

That 1966 law forced any boat that was predominantly wooden to stop operating as an overnight cruise vessel if it carried more than 49 passengers.

Though the Delta Queen has a steel hull, she has a wooden superstructure and carries up to 174 passengers. Congress had granted her nine exemptions to the Safety at Sea Act since 1966.

The last one expired Oct. 31, 2008, after Rep. James Oberstar, D-Minn., the chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee -- which has jurisdiction over the law -- decided to wield his considerable power as chairman and deny the request for a new exemption.

Though Mr. Oberstar had voted in favor of exemptions for the Delta Queen previously, he said he was stopping a new exemption because he was concerned about the possibility of a fire on the wooden boat.

But Ambassadors officials said they were told Mr. Oberstar suddenly opposed granting an exemption because the company had forced the Seafarers International Union, which represented the Delta Queen's crew, off the boat when they bought it in 2006. Mr. Oberstar denied the union had anything to do with his decision.

Company officials said the union told them they could help persuade Mr. Oberstar to change his mind if they allowed the union to represent all seven of Ambassadors' Majestic American Line boats again, including the Delta Queen.

That never happened and after her last overnight passenger cruise in October 2008, Ambassadors leased her out as a floating hotel.

"I know some people come out and say, 'I'd rather see her burn than docked as a hotel.' But I'd rather see that than see what happened to the Mississippi Queen," said Leah Ann Ingram, who, along with her husband, Randy, run the Delta Queen as a hotel in Chattanooga and have also made a bid to buy her.

The 34-year-old Mississippi Queen, another of Ambassadors' Majestic American Line boats, was sold for scrap in May this year.

Since the Delta Queen's exemption expired in 2008, a lot has changed.

During the elections earlier this month, after being re-elected 18 times, Mr. Oberstar lost his seat to Republican Chip Cravaack.

In addition, with a change in majority control of the U.S. House of Representatives, a Republican, John Mica of Florida, will be the new chairman of the Transportation Committee.

"Oberstar is history," Mr. Mica said this week. "There's a new chairman now."

Mr. Mica voted in favor of the exemption in 2008 and if the new owners of the Delta Queen bring him a request for an exemption to the Safety at Sea Act, he said he will support it again.

Delta Queen fans "will have a strong advocate on the committee coming in January," he said. "I will do everything I can to support getting her back out there."

"I'm going to put it at the top of the list on our committee. To me, it's one more thing that can help expand employment," he said.

He said he would rely on building support from Steve Chabot, a Republican congressman from Cincinnati -- where the Delta Queen was headquartered for most of her post-World War II life under previous owners.

Mr. Chabot led the fight in the House for an exemption in 2008, going so far as to send Mr. Oberstar a cake with the Delta Queen painted on it after Mr. Oberstar injured his leg in a bike accident.

"What's that phrase? You can get more flies with honey than vinegar," said Mr. Chabot of the cake. "That's what I was going for, but it didn't work."

Mr. Chabot lost his seat in 2008 to a Democrat. But earlier this month, Mr. Chabot won his seat back and now he's hoping the winning bidder for the Delta Queen wants to put her back in the cruising business.

"She ought to be functioning as she was intended -- traveling so people can ride her," he said. "She's like a caged animal now. I'd rather see her out there roaming."

"Free the Delta Queen!" he said with a laugh.

Sean D. Hamill: shamill@post-gazette.com or 412-263-2579.