Majestic America Line is actively and aggressively pursuing the renewal of the exemption from the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) regulations for the DELTA QUEEN, MAL executive David Simmons told steamboats.org last week in New Orleans.
With her mostly wooden superstructure the DELTA QUEEN is running under such an exemption for more than 30 years now after she was almost being closed down as a passenger vessel in 1970 when a massive national marketing campaign of the Greene Line Steamers company saved the boat from a forceful retirement. The "Save the Delta Queen" campaign then was organized by the company's Vice President Betty Blake and was even supported by show stars like Johnny Cash. Eventually they successfully convinced the Congress to issue an exemption for this historic boat. Since then the exemption was extended a couple of times. The actual exemption is to be expiring in 2008.
Read the whole story of the "Save the Delta Queen" campaign of 1970 at Nori Muster's website steamboats.com.
