The hull, first two decks, and steam engines were ordered in 1924 from the
William Denny & Brothers shipyard on the
River Leven adjoining the
River Clyde at
Dumbarton,
Scotland.
Delta Queen and her sister,
Delta King, were shipped in pieces to
Stockton, California in 1926. There the California Transportation Company assembled the two vessels for their regular
Sacramento River service between
San Francisco and
Sacramento, and excursions to Stockton, on the
San Joaquin River. At the time, they were the most lavishly appointed and expensive sternwheel passenger boats ever commissioned. Driven out of service by a new highway linking Sacramento with San Francisco in 1940, the two vessels were laid up and then purchased by
Isbrandtsen Steamship Lines for service out of
New Orleans. During
World War II, they were requisitioned by the
United States Navy for duty in
San Francisco Bay as USS
Delta Queen (YHB-7/YFB-56). During the war, the vessels were painted battleship gray and used in transporting wounded from ocean-going ships in San Francisco Bay to area hospitals. Three different United States Presidents have sailed on
Delta Queen:
Herbert Hoover,
Harry Truman, and
Jimmy Carter. On that ocean trip she was piloted by
Frederick Way, Jr. In 1948 she entered regular passenger service, plying the waters of the Ohio, Mississippi,
Tennessee, and
Cumberland Rivers between Cincinnati, New Orleans,
St. Paul,
Chattanooga,
Nashville, and ports in between. Ownership of the vessel has changed seven times over fifty years.
Richard Simonton bought a controlling interest in the Greene Line in 1958 when it was in financial difficulty. In 1966, Congress passed the first Safety at Sea Law that would put the
Delta Queen out of business. After consulting with attorney William Kohler, Richard Simonton,
Bill Muster, and Edwin "Jay" Quinby traveled to Washington, DC, to save their boat. As chairman of the board of Greene Line Steamers, Jay Quinby testified before the Senate to ask for an exemption to the law. Greene Line had to renegotiate the exemption every two to four years. The boat's
Betty Blake Lounge is named in honor of the woman who rose from public relations officer to savior of the boat when Congressman
Edward A. Garmatz, a Democrat who represented Baltimore and was Chairman of the House Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries, tried to block the 1970 exemption. Thanks to the efforts of Betty Blake and Bill Muster, the
Delta Queen was listed on the
National Register of Historic Places in 1970 and was subsequently declared a
National Historic Landmark in 1989. The business continued with its name changing in 1973 to The Delta Queen Steamboat Company. One unusual feature of
Delta Queen is her
steam calliope, mounted on the Texas deck aft of the pilothouse. It covers approximately three octaves, and was used to play the ship in and out of her berth while she was docking and undocking. The Master of the
Delta Queen sometimes extended this courtesy to other vessels as well. In 1974,
Charlie Waller &
The Country Gentlemen recorded a song on their
Remembrances & Forecasts album written by
Leroy Drumm and Pete Goble titled Delta Queen, to which Leroy was inspired to write after having seen her running down the
Tennessee River in the early 1970s.
21st century duty Majestic America Line most recently operated the vessel. The vessels were purchased from the
Delaware North Companies in April 2006. Besides
Delta Queen, the company also owned the
American Queen and
Mississippi Queen, modern steamboats designed along
Delta Queens lines but carrying around 400 passengers. The company also owned riverboats that have seen service on the Columbia and Snake Rivers in Oregon and Washington, and the Alaska Inside Passage.
Delta Queen cruised the Mississippi River and its
tributaries on a regular schedule, with cruises ranging from New Orleans to
Memphis to
St. Louis to St. Paul to Cincinnati to Pittsburgh, and many more. On some cruises, the vessel probed rivers such as the
Arkansas,
Red,
Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway,
Black Warrior,
Mobile, and more. on October 6, 2007.
Delta Queen recreated historic steamboat races each year during the
Kentucky Derby Festival, when she raced with the
Belle of Louisville on the Ohio at
Louisville in the
Great Steamboat Race. The winner of the annual race received a trophy of
golden
antlers, which was mounted on the pilothouse until the next race. They also raced during the
Tall Stacks festivals celebrating steamboats, held every three or four years in Cincinnati (
Delta Queens former home port). On August 1, 2007, Majestic America Line announced that
Delta Queen would cease operations permanently at the end of the 2008 season because its most recent exemption from
SOLAS, which had been granted to it by
Congress nine times over the previous four decades, was expiring. In response, in September 2007, the
Member of the Scottish Parliament for
Dumbarton,
Jackie Baillie, backed by 15 other Members, submitted a motion to the
Scottish Parliament calling for the preservation of the ship. Meanwhile, in the United States, devotees of the boat created a renewed "Save the Delta Queen" campaign similar to the one undertaken in the 1970s. However, the efforts were not successful, and the
Delta Queen ceased all service at the end of the 2008 season. On her official website, Under lease to Chattanooga businessman Harry Phillips, she was docked at
Coolidge Park Landing on Chattanooga's North Shore. The Delta Queen Hotel officially opened for overnight guests on June 5, 2009, offering dining, a lounge, live period music, and theatrical performances, closing to the public in December 2014. From 2006 to 2008
Ambassadors International, owned the boat and leased it to a company called All Aboard Travel, operating as Delta Queen LLC, which began leasing the vessel in August 2010. Ambassadors International listed the ship for sale beginning in late 2008 at a price of
$4.75 million, This dispute seemed to rest on the
Delta Queen having not paid its rent, which the owners of the
Delta Queen had disputed on their Facebook page. This news was in light of the
Delta Queen being honored as a "National Treasure" by the National Trust for Historic Preservation on September 21, 2013. Congress voted on renewing the ''Delta Queen's
SOLAS exemption to allow it to travel the rivers again in 2013, but the bill failed to pass. The Delta Queen'' was then bought by the newly formed Delta Queen Steamboat Co. in early 2015. It departed Chattanooga for restoration in New Orleans on March 22, 2015. for repairs and upgrades in
Houma, Louisiana. She safely arrived on April 7, 2015, in her temporary slip for restoration. On November 27, 2018, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to reinstate the exemption to allow the
Delta Queen to return to service after a decade-long retirement. , the
Delta Queen is still docked in Houma, with no evidence of work being done. ==Hauntings==