Bee Travel
Help Delta Queen stay afloat
CHRISTINE HICKS- USTA Travel
Not that it matters, but I am not a bleeding heart, banner-waving kind of American. I love this country but believe its underlying principle - the thing that makes it so great - is that we learn from others and are at our best when pressured. I don't believe in buying American just because it's American, in other words. It still has to be good.

For years, the battle over flagging ships with the U.S. flag has raged. Few ships carry our flag because of cabotage laws, things I don't totally understand, except that they send business people running to raise banners issued in the Bahamas, Holland, Liberia and other such cruise business-friendly environs. And that's OK, I guess, for the cruise business has thrived in America, despite this oddity.

And then there is the very American, can-be-no-other-flag Delta Queen. In the land of Tom Sawyer, Huck Finn and Mark Twain, we have had the Delta Queen and its predecessors plying the Mississippi and its tributaries for a couple of hundred years. She was built of the finest woods - oak, teak, Oregon cedar. This hardworking steamboat took to water 80 years ago, traveling between Sacramento and San Francisco. She worked the Sacramento River between 1927 and 1940 and then served as a troop barracks. During WWII she carried servicemen to and from the ships in San Francisco Bay. She arrived in New Orleans in 1947 and hauled her refurbished self on trips along the Mississippi and its tributaries, where she has remained since. She is American pie and mother and all things red, white and blue. And she may be going away for good.

The Delta Queen is U.S.-owned and operated, a registered historic treasure of the Department of the Interior and the National Trust for Historic Preservation, as well as being a National Historic Landmark. She has been operating under federal exemption, owing to her wood superstructure. Because of subsequent safety laws, the exemption has been granted. In her 80-year history, she has sustained one fire (2003), a sterno incident, which caused little damage, and no disruption. The line subsequently shifted to electric chafing dishes. Indeed, its presence on the river places it no more than a few hundred yards from shore, should fire occur. She sails with a U.S. crew aboard, and has hosted presidents and royalty. The economies of towns that receive her will suffer if she sails away one final time.

This isn't a case of bad customer service or poor-quality accommodation. There's been no virus outbreak aboard, no oil leak tainting the Mississippi, and her decks and cabins have thrived with business. And she's one of a kind.

Congress has been denied the vote to extend her exemption, stalled by committees that have not allowed the vote. Want to help this last all-American vessel stay afloat? Log on to www.majesticamericalines. com, and click at the top "Save the Delta Queen!" Here you'll find links to petition lawmakers and more information.

(Christine Hicks-Usta has enjoyed more than 30 years of globe-trotting as a member of the travel industry. Direct questions to her at Bee Group Newspapers, P.O. Box 150, Buffalo, NY 14231-0150.)