Created to promote the steamboat Delta Queen, this charming film shows the vessel as it appeared in the early 1970s. The film shows some of the modern equipment added to the ship to keep it in operation, while highlighting the “trip back in time” that the steamboat made possible — back to the days of Mark Twain. The film was made by Greene Line Steamers and produced by Lee Strosnider and features the song “Delta Queen, My Time Machine” written by George Tassian and performed by John Hartford. it was directed by Bill Muster. The film was widely used to promote preservation of the ship, and during the last four months of 1972, the film played on numerous TV shows and at private showings for groups, clubs, churches, etc. as part of that effort.
The Delta Queen is an American sternwheel steamboat. Historically, she has been used for cruising the major rivers that constitute the tributaries of the Mississippi River, particularly in the American South. She was docked in Chattanooga, Tennessee and served as a floating hotel until she was bought by the newly formed Delta Queen Steamboat Company. She was towed to Houma, Louisiana, in March 2015 to be refurbished to her original condition. The Delta Queen is 285 feet (87 m) long, 58 feet (18 m) wide, and draws 11.5 feet (3.5 m). She weighs 1,650 tons (1,676 metric tons), with a capacity of 176 passengers. Her cross-compound steam engines generate 2,000 indicated horsepower (1,500 kW), powering a stern-mounted paddlewheel. Built in 1927, she is the last surviving steam-powered overnight passenger boat plying the watershed of the Mississippi. She was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1989.
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.
In 1946, Delta Queen was purchased by Greene Line of Cincinnati, Ohio and towed via the Panama Canal and the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers to be refurbished in Pittsburgh. 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 the last fifty years.
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. 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.
One unusual feature of Delta Queen is her steam calliope, mounted on the Texas deck aft of the pilot house.
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.
This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com
