Ties That Bind

[HostDave]

By Timothy Rubacky, Senior Vice President of Sales, Marketing and Product Development

People sometimes ask me about the history of American river cruising and, specifically, about our company’s ties to this grand tradition. I know that some of our guests were surprised to see a replica of the American Queen’s mighty paddlewheel sitting in a riverfront park in Cincinnati when our grand lady made her maiden call under our banner last week.

Make no mistake about it, back in the 18th century, folks did not hop on a riverboat for an enjoyable excursion. There was no such thing as a cruise and the steamboats of the day were built for transportation. In the earliest days, passengers slept with cargo, including livestock. As the years went by, the accommodations improved and the well-to-do could even purchase their own staterooms aboard and enjoy lavish spreads at mealtimes. But cargo ruled the roost and the speed of steamboats wasn’t for the benefit of passengers but for the benefit of cargo. The sooner a crop of cotton arrived in port, the higher the price that would be paid. Even on some of the nicest boats of the day, during harvesting season passengers would walk out on deck to find themselves staring at a wall of cotton. Cargo handlers stacked the bales as high as the highest decks.

Only as the 20th century dawned did the idea of taking a riverboat journey for the pure pleasure of it gain favor and most river towns found themselves host to an excursion boat or two. But well into the century, the same boats also were used for transportation from place to place as they were often cheaper than a railroad and more scenic.

In 1890, Captain Gordon C. Greene founded the Greene Line Steamers, headquartered in Cincinnati. The Greene family was described as the last steamboating family dynasty and it was true. They had operated a fleet of 27 steamboats and Greene’s wife, Mary, was one of the very first women ever to earn her captain’s license. Captain Greene died in 1927 and his sons, Chris and Tom, took over and by the 1940s knew that steamboats were a dying breed. Long barges could haul bulk cargo more cheaply than a traditional steamboat and the railroads could get people where they wanted to go much faster.

Chris died in 1943 but Tom hatched the idea of taking people onto the river for cruises and refitted the sternwheeler Gordon C. Greene to do just that. After World War II, the booming economy meant that the Gordon C. Greene was selling out and the Delta Queen, a Sacramento River steamer, was purchased and added to the fleet in the late 1940s. Tom died in 1950 and his wife, Letha, ran the company until 1969 when Greene Line Steamers was purchased by an airline and the capital was raised to build the Mississippi Queen in 1976. By 1973, Letha retired and the company took on the name of its famous Delta Queen, becoming known as the Delta Queen Steamboat Co. For the first time ever, the Greene family wasn’t running a steamboat.

The company changed hands a few more times, even being owned by the Coca-Cola Bottling Company of New York at one point! New owners in 1985 moved the headquarters from Cincinnati to New Orleans and by 1992, plans were drawn up for the biggest riverboat of them all. Three years later, the American Queen entered service. The president of Delta Queen Steamboat Co. at the time was Jeff Krida and the boat’s original paddlewheel was offered to the people of Cincinnati as a gift in recognition of the many years the city had served as the hub of steamboating. The wheel was too heavy to use for the waterfront park, but a full-scale, much lighter fiberglass replica was later installed.

New owners were also involved with ocean cruising in the Hawaiian Islands. An expansion into coastal river cruises and the construction of two new cruise ships for Hawaii proved to be more than the company’s coffers could handle in the early part of the 21st century. All vessels, except the Delta Queen, were laid up. Ownership eventually passed to two more companies, each with other lines of business demanding attention, and steamboat cruises ended in late 2008.

The Mississippi Queen was sold for scrap, as refurbishing her was deemed to be economically inadvisable. The Delta Queen, with its wooden superstructure, had lost its fire safety exemption from Congress when it was retired in 2008 and is currently docked on the Chattanooga waterfront. The American Queen, owned now by its mortgage holders, the United States Maritime Administration, was put up for sale. The Great America Steamboat Company, led by former Delta Queen Steamboat Co. President Jeff Krida, was created to return her to service.

Given our ties to Greene Line Steamers and the Delta Queen Steamboat Co., it was no surprise for guests to find Jeff Krida, our CEO, aboard American Queen on her first departure out of Memphis last week. Many familiar faces from Delta Queen were onboard and special guest Karen “Toots” Malloy, one of Delta Queen’s most beloved Riverlorians, was aboard to spin tales of the old days on the river. Gordon Greene, patriarch of the Greene Family, was happy to sail with us and offered up several talks about the early years of his family’s company. He was even named honorary Commodore of the American Queen at the naming ceremony, featuring Godmother Priscilla Presley, in Memphis.

Steamboating has a long history and even though we’re a new company, our roots run as deep and sure as the waters of the Mississippi herself.