Resorts at Sea: Delta Line

I thought I had every significant piece of Delta Line ephemera. Folded sheet of deck plans? Check. Profusely illustrated color brochure? Check. Profusely illustrated black and white brochure? Check. But there’s another! A random search online turned up one I had completely forgotten about. Images from it were used in the 2010 book Ship Style, which, by the way, is well worth one’s time.

The Del Norte, Del Sud, and Del Mar were the first American passenger liners built after World War II, sailing from New Orleans to South America, and they’re often overlooked. (To some, if it doesn’t happen on the North Atlantic, it doesn’t exist. You know who you are.) These sleek passenger-cargo liners were designed by the firm George G. Sharp. In a call to them a few months ago, I learned they had tossed all records pertaining to their passenger ship design division. News like that makes me even more determined to see this project through. But with twists like Sharp’s, it’s just going to take a bit longer.

These ships, just under 500 feet long, registered at 10,000 gross tons, carried 120 passengers, and, as a unique departure from the norm, had twin uptakes, which predated Holland-America’s iconic Rotterdam by a decade. The rooms were spacious, light, and airy; belying the smallness of the vessels. In the mid-1950’s, Delta Line’s advertising began calling the experience of taking the trip to South America a “resort at sea.”

Though the illustrations in this case are renderings, they are faithful to the interiors, as they’ve been described. Sculptor Raoul Josset created coats of arms representing the four nations that had control over New Orleans to go in the dining room. You can see a couple of them here on the left.

Artist Pierre Bourdelle did the spandrels for the hall (main lounge). For Del Norte, scenes of New Orleans history were depicted. The medium was carved linoleum, following his use of it for America in 1940. He also used it in President Cleveland and President Wilson in 1947 and 1948. I’m not sure if he repeated this motif for Del Sud and Del Mar. The finding aid for his papers is vague, with no mention of these ships, or the two Presidents, so only a visit to those materials will clear things up. But I like to think he would do something different for each ship in this trio.

I’ve just begun a conversation with JoAnne Heaney. She started working for George G. Sharp in 1943, under the supervision of future husband, Jack. She had a hand in these Delta liners, President Cleveland and President Wilson, and nuclear ship Savannah.