Goodbye Delta Queen Steamboat Company!

Oh my Carmen, How could you word it that way instead of Welcome Majestic America Line?

It is still going to be DQSC to most of us. I can't see us using MAL except to refer to their boats on the west coast. As a matter of fact, that would make it easy to readers on referring to the midwest boasts as DQSC and the west coast boats as MAL.

It does remind me of ACV or American Classic Voyages the names that were being used just before the start up of this board.

In truth, I wish the boats well regardless of ownership. I hurt every time I read about a misshap or problem. I smile and laugh and grin every time I read a post from people like Brunno and Debbie Krause. I still miss working on the boats although I am actually very settled in with my current situation.

I do need to spend my Sundays- editing my book and not surfing the Internet on everything else. But the addiction here is strong as ever and I still encourage everyone to find a way to afford to book a cruise on a steamboat. It may change your outlook on life to go cruising at 7 or 8 miles per hour on a river. There is nothing else like it. But I am preaching to the choir.

Finally, I have to add that I was recently at a party and someone commented about some damage done locally by some flooding. I looked at him and said- imagine how those victims of Katrina felt. He said- you are right and I don't think it is still back to normal.

So, I will lift a toast to Majestic America Line but its still DQSC to me.

Elaine

Ole Greene Line

When the name changed from Greene Line Steamers, Inc. something seemed lost, but the ground beneath the river did not tremble. The amazing story is that the company, no matter what it is called, is still around in the 21st Century. Good luck to the "new" company and as Captain Albert Kelly would often say in his exaggerated, slow, emphatic tone-- emphasizing every word, "It ain't the Ole Greene Line." Or is it?

Nice wording, Carmen. Its truthful and factual.

I am afraid I agree with Elaine, but as she said the words were nice, Carmen.
To me, they could have picked a better name as the boats do not represent ALL of America, just part.
But,
Good Luck to the Boats and the Crew under whatever name it is!!
Margaret

Margaret Swan;2314 wrote: To me, they could have picked a better name as the boats do not represent ALL of America, just part.

While MALine would be "ma-leen. a delicate net resembling tulle (a thin, fine, machine-made net of acetate, nylon, rayon, or silk), originally made by hand in the town of Mechlin, Belgium" The name has caused many people to malign the choice made by the new owners.

Elaine Santangelo;2302 wrote: Oh my Carmen, How could you word it that way instead of Welcome Majestic America Line?

Elaine,

I can´t welcome MAL right now as the company hasn´t changed the name yet :-). I only wanted to remember that this is definitely the last cruise under the old name which has been the companies name for more than 30 years now. Sure those who still know the boats from the old Greene Line days it must be the same feeling.

I´m sure we will get used to the new name although it´s hard to understand why the word "steamboat" is not part of the companies name anymore.

Carmen

Hopefully they've dropped steamboat from the name because they have several non-steamboats in the company now too, rather than the possibility that they want to disassociate from the steamboat traditions. Time will tell.

Hi, Carmen & gang:
Thanks for the reminder about the corporate name change from DQSB CO. to MAL. There's a lot in a name where brand recognition is concerned. Shipyard hit it squarely recalling the old name of GREENE LINE STEAMERS and the river not trembling beneath when it was changed. I always liked seeing that huge GL steel wharfboat with the big letters emblazoned on the roof. You could see it driving or even flying into Cincinnati from a distance. It was a link to the old days of big wharfboats in river cities.

The Greenes operated the company here since 1904 with the name in evidence being one of the best known family names and concerns in Cincinnati. The company has changed ownerships like a 'coat of many colors,' yet the DQ continues on and on with her sisters in tandem. In many ways I can never think of it other than GREENE LINE STEAMERS. Shipyard hit it right again with his quote from Albert Kelly with "Or is it?"

An 'academic case' could...possibly...be constructed that the present company now under the MAL is the oldest steamboat line in existence in the United States. The original U.S. MAIL LINE was incorporated in 1818. Later in the century reincorporated as L&C LINE until the navigation rights were sold to the GREENE LINE in the 1930s. For years Cincinnati maps/directories showed a map of the river and the Public Landing with hatched marks pointing up and down river with the notation 'GREENE LINE STEAMERS Navigation Line.' It is an unbroken history from 1818 to the present day. I wish the boats, officers, crew and management nothing but the best of luck. Happy steaming for many years to come. What's in a name? Plenty.

Cheers,
R. Dale Flick

An older steamboat company

"On April 15, 1817 a company was incorporated by the New York State Legislature to operate commercial shipping on Lake George. The title given this company was the Lake George Steamboat Company. " This is from the history page on the Lake George Steamboat Company website. This company is of course the parent of the New Orleans Steamboat Company, owner of the NATCHEZ. So I guess it beats out the DQ companies by a year or so, but could there be any other older? For some reason, I've got it in my mind that they have trumpeted Lake George as the oldest one.

Hi, Judy:
Yes, after posting I remembered the Lake George Co. but couldn't lay my fingers on the data here. Franz and Carmen may have a handle on some of the old steamboat companies in Germany etc. I 'thought' I'd read several years ago there was one in Europe touted to be the oldest of them all. Possibilty that some of these claims for the U.S. MAIL LINE/L&C LINE etc. could have been inflated out of corpororate or civic pride; yet LLOYD'S STEAMBOAT DIRECTORY, 1856,' and other sources keep refering to the line here in Cincinnati. Prof. Jack White up at Miami, Oxford, Oh. may know and I'll pick his brain.

One E=Mailer here yesterday did comment that "Any connection is pretty slim at this late date and what does it matter?"

Cheers,
R. Dale Flick

Well, Dale, lots of things don't really matter, but what's the harm in theorizing or doing a little research? As we all know, lots of extraneous info shows up, some of which just might matter! And besides, you and I are retired teachers, bored with life and with nothing else to do anyway, right? I still can't figure out, now in my fifth year of retirement, how I ever had time to fit work in the picture....

Well, Judy, I think that mebbe I've got it figgered out. When you were working, you knew what you had to do every day and it was a pretty set and striuctured routine. And, now, that you can do anything that you want, there are still more things that you want to do than you could possibly have the time or treasure to pursue. Ergo, and therefore, bein' retired is much MORE than a full time job! Sigh! Then, too, and speaking for myself only, I'm sure, there is that one quality thing that takes up a fair block of my time...nap time!

Yep, I need a deadline to get myself in gear, otherwise its wait until tomorrow. Of course, these last several years have included quite a bit of time on this board, which is certainly a worthwhile pursuit...

To Bruce: The NAME change has nothing to do with either maleen or malign, it DOES have everything to do with history!!!!

The Kentucky River's Valley View Ferry operating at Valley View, KY. has the Lake George Steamboat Co. and The White Collar Line trumped. This little business has its charter from the Commonwealth of Virginia. When the ferry's charter was granted before 1792 it wa operating in the county of Virginia which is now the Commonwealth of Kentucky.

Valley View Ferry

Great find, Frank.

See:
http://www.lfucg.com/TrafficInfo/ValleyViewFerry.asp

oldest boat company

Wow, nothing escapes this group! The ferry looks to be about the size of Andersons or the one at Canton MO, judging by that little picture. Have you ridden it Frank?

You, bet I've ridden her. It's been awhile though, so it was with the old equipment. If I remember correctly, it could carry about three cars at a time.

Margaret Swan;2363 wrote: To Bruce: The NAME change has nothing to do with either maleen or malign, it DOES have everything to do with history!!!!

History is a very interesting thing. I have been reading a book that lists all of the organized English and French cities that existed in the Northwest Territory before Marietta Ohio. Several times newspapers have printed articles about how something amazing has happened for the first time ever, and my family was involved in something like it that happened many years earlier.

Does anyone remember the Tall Stacks article that said that the Delta Queen was the first steamboat to go through the Panama Canal?

What I was referring to was that as soon as the name change is announced, people complained, and in this case, the new name almost looks like a word for complaining. Someone even pointed out a problem with boat names that begin with M.

Ok, the post was a bit off topic, but the point was related to the new name. My appologies to those that felt that it was more than a bit off topic.