What is the problem with the Delta Queen?

The Str. DELTA QUEEN operates under a special Congressional Exemption from the 1966 Safety of Life at Sea Law (Public Law 89-777). This law forbids any vessel, foreign or domestic, from operating from a United States port carrying over 50 overnight passengers if it is constructed primarily of wood. The exemption is running out on Nevember 1, 2008 and all efforts so far failed to renew this exemption for the years to come.

Is the Delta Queen safe?

In short: Yes, she is safe! But by law, boats with wooden superstructure can not carry 50 or more overnight passengers. Remember: The Delta Queen has a double steel hull, but the superstructure is partially of wood.

Now, first of all, there shouldn’t be a fire on any boat or ship at all. There is a lot that can be done to prevent a fire from starting in the first place. And of course on the Delta Queen everything is being done to comply with top-of-the-notch safety standards of these days.

But let’s face it: There is no 100% guarantee that there won’t be a fire, on any boat in the world - no matter how much safety features a boat offers. So a very important question is: What happens in case of a fire? How quick are passengers being trapped by the fire? How quick can passengers be evacuated? How effective is the sprinkler system? How effective is the monitoring system, so a fire is detected as quick as possible, before it becomes big?

It’s very important to know how long a structure withstands the fire until it collapses. That’s much more important than the question whether the material itself is burning or not, because the dangerous fumes (which are the main problem in a fire, not the flames and heat itself!) are being produced by burning furniture etc already long before any kind of superstructure catches fire. Wood burns and is being consumed by a fire (in case of the DQ, slowly because it’s hardwood, not Pine or something similar!). Metal doesn’t burn, but it’s melting! And it transfers heat quickly throughout the structure as it’s a very good heat conductor. While wood is isolating the heat and keeps the heat local.

Passengers need to be evacuated before a structure collapses. Ask experiences firemen - they tell you that they feel much saver entering a burning wooden building than a metal construction. That’s because wooden structures are very stabile even when burning and it’s easier to estimate when they collapse, while metal when melting are collapsing all the sudden (see WTC and other steel buildings).

By the way, the DQ’s superstructure is not completely made of wood. Many years ago they built in metal structures within wooden colums to give the structure even more stability and then they wrapped the wood back around the metal. You don’t see the steel, but it’s there.

And, probably most important on the Delta Queen: She has extremely short escape routes. Almost every cabin has an outside door. With just a few footsteps you’re on open decks. From every place on the boat you have the option of several different escape routes. The boat is never far away from land. In case of a fire, the pilot simply grounds the boat within minutes, passengers leave their cabins through their outside door and walk right on land to safety. Compare this to big cruise ships in the middle of the ocean and you can see how ridiculous it is to use a law that is made for huge ocean going cruise ships for such a small riverboat like the Delta Queen.

Why does Congress refuse the exemption for the Delta Queen?

Any bill in Senate and House of Representatives has to pass the appropriate committee, in this case the Transportation Committee in the House and the Commerce Committee in the Senate. The chairmen of both committees, Rep. James Oberstar and Sen. Daniel Inoyue, are strictly opposing the exemption for not very clear reasons and therefore block any bill according the Delta Queen in their committee. There are ways around this, though: a) If there are enough co-sponsors to a bill. it can go directly to the floor of the full House of Representatives. b) If we can raise enough public attention to this issue, we might "convince" the committees to overcome their actual position and let the bill through. Hey, many of these members of the committees are running for re-election this year!

What does the Coast Guard say?

The Coast Guard was always opposing the exemptions for the Delta Queen, even in the past, for reasons we think don’t have much to do with her safety. More than that, just as an example: The Coast Guard asked for a new fire monitoring and sprinkler system in 2000 and the company built that in (see above for details). She has a new, very modern system - on order of the Coast Guard. now the same CG tells us she’s not safe.

Remember: The exemption (hopefully) issued by the Congress just gives the Coast Guard the right to issue a certificate of inspection for the Delta Queen. The Coast Guard still has to take care of frequent, thoroughly inspections of the boat and can refuse the certificate in case the boat is not considered safe.

I’ve heard that the Unions are part of the problem?

It’s said that Unions, namely the Seafarer’s Internation Union (SIU) is strongly opposing the exemption for the Delta Queen and is using her influence on politicians in this cause. There is no evidence for that, even though it’s pretty likely if you can read between the lines of their "SIU statement on Delta Queen". What ever the case is, we can’t change the SIU’s behaviour and we can’t change anything what they don in this cause. So let’s just forget about this (except you’re a high-ranking member of the SIU and are willing to help the Delta Queen ;-)

How can I help?

see details on the "How can I help?" page.