Austrian Lloyd

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Austrian Lloyd

logo
legal form Corporation
founding 1833 (shipping company: 1836)
resolution 1921
Reason for dissolution Transfer to the Italian state
Continuation until 2006 as Lloyd Triestino
Seat Trieste
Branch Information gathering
shipping company
publishing house and printing company

The steamer Graf Wurmbrand in the port of Zadar (around 1900)
From 1907 onwards , the Thalia , which was converted into a cruise ship , operated as a pleasure steamer, mainly on routes in the Mediterranean, the North Sea and the European North Sea.

The Austrian Lloyd ( Italian Lloyd Austriaco ) was the largest shipping company in Austria-Hungary and the Mediterranean . It was created on the initiative of seven insurance companies in Trieste : the Banco Adriatico di Assicurazioni, Azienda Assicuratrice, Banco Illirico d'Assicurazioni, Banco Adriatico di Assicurazione Generali, Banco di Marittime Assicurazioni, Compagnia degli Amici di Assicuratori, according to demicurazione d'Assicuratori and the Società Orientale Model launched by Lloyd’s in London . A special committee, which u. a. the Austrian politician Karl Ludwig von Bruck was a member, drafted the statutes, which were approved by the central office of the United Insurance Companies and finally by the government. In 1833, 19 maritime transport insurance companies, banks and 127 individual shareholders were able to formally establish the company with its seat in Trieste , which is equipped with a free port , in the Austrian part of the monarchy. In addition to von Bruck, the individual shareholders also included the Trieste banker Pasquale Revoltella and the Generali founder Joseph Lazarus Morpurgo .

The purpose of the company was initially to obtain information for the participating insurance companies. From 1836, the postal service in the Adriatic was also taken over, which laid the foundation for the subsequent expansion in both the freight and passenger sectors to become one of the largest shipping companies in the world. “Forward” was chosen as the motto, contrary to the trend at the time among shipping companies around the world to use Latin formulations.

The biggest direct competitor was from the 1880s, operated by Hungary and supported, but in terms of their number of vessels and tonnage significantly smaller shipping company Adria domiciled in the Hungarian part belonging Fiume had. In 1898 the Austrian and Hungarian governments concluded an agreement on the division of traffic zones between Lloyd and the Adriatic . According to this, the West, namely Italy, Malta, Spain, France, Great Britain, North and West Africa (excluding Egypt) and North America were reserved for "Oesterreichischer Lloyd the Orient, East Africa, India, China and Japan" stay. The Black Sea area is neutral. "

The official language was Italian , but the brochures were written in German, and for the Levant and India-East Asia lines also in French and English. Czech-language advertising material is also available, e.g. B. for SS Thalia . Like comparable shipping companies in other countries, the company was given high government subsidies, which is why the company can be described as “semi-governmental”, not least because of various governmental obligations.

After the end of the First World War , the Austrian Lloyd passed into Italian ownership and was operated from 1921 to 2006 as Lloyd Triestino (Triestiner Lloyd). In 2006 Lloyd Triestino was renamed Italia Marittima .

history

The Austrian Lloyd's fleet in 1848
(excluding paddle steamers, a total of 24)
Ship name build in Launch Tonnage  (in  t ) PS
Arciduca Francesco Carlo Venice 1833 133 40
Arciduchessa Sofia Trieste 1833 141 50
Maria Dorotea Trieste 1834 212 70
Ferdinando I. Trieste 1836 284 100
Arciduca Ludovico London 1837 310 100
Arciduca Giovanni London 1837 349 120
Principe Metternich Trieste 1837 473 140
Conte Mittrowsky Trieste 1837 237 60
Elleno (ex Principe Metternich ) Trieste 1837 357 120
Baron Eichhoff Trieste 1837 361 100
Mahmudiè Trieste 1838 467 120
Dalmata (ex Conte striker ) Trieste 1838 211 60
Stambul (I) Trieste 1838 620 160
Conte striker (ex Seri Pervas ) Trieste 1839 469 140
Barone Kübeck Trieste 1842 229 70
Arciduca Federico Bristol 1842 394 120
Imperatore Trieste 1843 545 160
Imperatrice Trieste 1844 545 160
Conte Kolowrat Trieste 1845 330 100
Austria Trieste 1847 763 360
Trieste Trieste 1847 448 160
Venezia Trieste 1847 448 160
Italia Trieste 1847 728 260
Germania Trieste 1847 728 260

Foundation and first business years

Merger of insurance companies in Trieste (1st section)

The purpose of the Österreichischer Lloyd, founded in 1833 based on the model of the Londoner Lloyd , was initially to provide traders and shipping agents with current information on various markets and maritime trade in Europe and Asia . The company obtained the information from a network of various trade correspondents and newspapers that regularly reached the port of Trieste . In addition, the shipping traffic in the port of Trieste was to be noted, and on behalf of the state, the time-consuming and delayed mail transport had to be carried out by the k. u. k. To be carried out by sailing ships provided by the Kriegsmarine . The following gentlemen belonged to the first management: Bousquet, Karl von Bruck , Brucker, Giannichesi, Grant, Kohen, Meksa, Padovani, Premuda, Carl Regensdorff, da Costa, Sartorio, Schell and Vucetich.

Steamship Company (2nd Section)

To participate in the international ocean freight and -passagierverkehr, the Austrian Lloyd led the division on August 2, 1836 shipment a.

The “Steamship Company of Austrian Lloyd” (Italian: “Società di navigazione a vapore del Lloyd Austriaco”) quickly became the core business of the entire company. Therefore, this date is also considered to be the year the Austrian Lloyd was founded. The founding capital was one million Florentine guilders in convention coins . The founding deed said: "The purpose of the founding should be to bring Trieste into connection with the echelles (port places) of the Orient by means of steam boats."
Emperor Franz Joseph I has also been shown to have participated in later periods . In 1906 he held 430 shares at 1,000 crowns in his private assets and in 1909 he held 1,100 shares.

For the new division three were from England steamships of 120  hp and three steamers with 100 hp purchased. Workshops were set up in Trieste and coal storage areas were rented in ports abroad. The first ship that could be delivered to Österreichischer Lloyd was the “Arciduca Ludovico” built in London. The first voyage of the company, now operating as a shipping company, started on May 15, 1837 at 5 p.m. from the Molo San Carlo in Trieste. There were 53 passengers on board the ship, which headed for Constantinople via the intermediate ports of Ancona , Corfu , Patras , Piraeus , Syra and Smyrna within 14 days .

The Austrian Lloyd directed its activities in particular to the Orient and operated the first freight and passenger transports to ports in the entire Mediterranean region . In the first year of operation, 79 journeys (58 between Trieste and Venice, 21 to Greece, Turkey and Egypt) were recorded with a total of 7,967 passengers and 35,205 letters. The first sea connections to Constantinople were established in 1837. Due to the successful start, the first general meeting decided to buy two more ships and to increase the share capital to 1.5 million guilders. The Lloyd ships also went to the Levant , Greece and Egypt . With this expansion of the line network, Lloyd was instructed by the state to set up postal expeditions in the larger cities. From 1842, Lloyd was authorized to hoist the Post flag and officers and crew were allowed to wear uniforms. The initially chosen color green was extremely unpopular and after a few years, not least because of the risk of confusion with the equally green uniforms of the Russian merchant navy, against the international and also with the k. u. k. Navy and Navy uniforms exchanged for the usual blue and white uniforms.

Letterhead from the editors of the journals of Österreichischer Lloyd

Literary and artistic department (3rd section)

While the 1st section was responsible for gathering information and the 2nd section for freight and passenger traffic, the Lloyd's board of directors decided in 1848 to outsource its extensive journalistic activities. Accordingly, a third section worked from 1849 onwards. This part of Lloyd, known as the “literary-artistic department”, which was structured as a legally independent stock corporation, comprised the editorial offices of the periodicals it published , the general printing company, which had its own type foundry , the art institute with a steel , copper and and wood engraving studio as well as a photographic studio and finally the reading rooms . It published timetables, yearbooks, newspapers and illustrated books. So appeared u. a. the official provincial newspaper L 'Osservatore Triestino , the daily newspaper Triester Zeitung appearing from March 1851 to November 2, 1918 , the popular folk newspaper Il Diavoletto , the Greek-language weekly Ημερα ( The Day ) and Il listino , the daily list of incoming and outgoing journals Ships. From September 1850 to 1865, the illustrated family book with many steel engravings for the entertainment and instruction of domestic circles , which was also published in bound form in a total of 15 volumes, was published as a monthly publication. The editors were initially the Austrian actor and writer Ignaz Papsch (1800–1862) and the poet Faust Pachler . The Italian language version was the Letture di Famiglia . In addition, classical literature as well as works of history, nature, navigation and geography were published, some of which were very elaborately furnished with artistically high-quality steel engravings. From 1854 to 1881 the Kunstanstalt published a nine-volume series of travel guides under the title Lloyd's Travel Guide . a. Trieste, Venice and the Orient as well as several railway lines were dedicated. As early as 1861 a publisher's catalog with a good hundred titles was published. He performed literary, artistic and geographical works mainly in German and Italian. With its publication activities, the 3rd section supplemented and supported the other business activities of Lloyd. It was not closed until 1928 by Triestiner Lloyd , the successor to Österreichischer Lloyd.

Expansion to the Austro-Hungarian compensation

Timetable from 1845 for the lines Constantinople – Smyrna and Constantinople – Galatz
Advertisement in the Illustrirten Zeitung from February 1848 for steam shipping

By 1845, the number of journeys had quadrupled and the number of passengers had increased twenty-fold. 1049 people were employed. Part of the responsibility for the company's rapid growth was an agreement with the First Danube Steamship Company (DDSG) , which provided for weekly trips from the Danube ports to the Black Sea , where it was possible to transfer to Austrian Lloyd ships.

In 1852 shipping on the Po and Lake Maggiore was taken over and reorganized. Lines were later also established on the Boyana River and Lake Skadar . Due to the enormous expansion of the first 15 years or so, Österreichischer Lloyd now had a number of ships that required regular maintenance and repair work. A large arsenal for this purpose as well as for the independent new building was required, which was built in Trieste-Sant'Andrea from 1853. Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian laid the foundation stone on May 30th. The architect for the buildings on the 114,000 m² site, which went into operation in 1861, was hired by the Danish Hans Christian Hansen , who became famous in Greece for his shipyard buildings . The 3,000 employees in the Lloyd arsenal meant an enormous economic factor for Trieste. In addition to large workshops, the arsenal included a dry dock and a 241 meter long slipway for building new ships. In 1865 the first steamer "Austria" built entirely from iron and domestic materials was launched in this arsenal. At 1,700 tons, it was the shipping company's largest ship to date.

Floor plan of the Lloyd Arsenal, from: Lloyd's Travel Guide Triest (1857)
The Lloyd Arsenal in Trieste as seen from the sea (around 1900)

From 1855 onwards, Österreichischer Lloyd received state subsidies for the first time. However, associated with this were various requirements, such as the maintenance of certain lines in the Orient and the introduction of new lines including postal service. In addition, ships were only allowed to be built abroad in exceptional cases from now on. In the war against Italy in 1866, Lloyd had to deliver several steamers to the k. u. k. Rent the Kriegsmarine and was also obliged to transport troops. Sunk ships, such as the "Egitto" near Lissa , were replaced.

As early as 1857, the Semmering was no longer an obstacle for the railway, the first train of the southern railway from Vienna arrived in Trieste; This new traffic connection and the existence of a customs free port (the only one in the Adriatic) due to an imperial privilege from 1719 further boosted the economy of Trieste and its surrounding area. From 1837 to 1914, 220 steamers handled 37.3 million tons of goods and carried 21.5 million passengers. Österreichischer Lloyd was the largest shipping company in the Mediterranean and the city of Trieste - after Hamburg, Rotterdam, Marseille and Genoa - the fifth largest port in continental Europe .

After the Austro-Hungarian Compromise in 1867, the company had to be renamed "Lloyd Austro-Ungarico" or "Austro-Hungarian Lloyd" in 1872. Lloyd, highly subsidized by the state, had to carry out troop, refugee and emigrant transports time and again , for example during the occupation of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1908, when 136,000 emigrants were transported from European to Asian Turkey on behalf of the Ottoman government k. u. k. Army 72,000 men, 8,000 horses and 90,000 tons of war material were transported from Trieste to Dalmatia. As early as 1882, the frigate Laudon and the steamers Mars , Ceres and Diana had transported Austro-Hungarian citizens via Alexandria from Egypt , where there had been bloody conflicts.

Development from the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869

The former Lloyd Palace in 2007.

Austrian Lloyd as a partner in the Suez Canal Company

In 1869, Österreichischer Lloyd became a partner in the Suez Canal Society , in which the founding member Pasquale Revoltella was vice-president. With the opening of the Suez Canal , Österreichischer Lloyd was able to offer competitive connections to the Asian region for the first time, as previously Africa would have had to be circumnavigated for such trips. A journey from Trieste to Alexandria now only took three days , to Port Said by express line four days. The direct competitors from Germany (e.g. North German Lloyd ), Holland and England were able to poach numerous passengers. The daily train connections from the English Channel port of Vlissingen in Holland through Germany to Trieste were much faster than a journey by ship from a British, Dutch or German port across the Strait of Gibraltar and the entire Mediterranean to the Suez Canal. On the lines to Egypt, India and East Asia, Austrian Lloyd therefore always had a large proportion of English on board who traveled across the English Channel to Vlissingen and then by train to Trieste.

OIL pavilion at the Vienna World Exhibition 1873 (Photo: György Klösz )
Oil car for the Vienna pageant for the silver wedding anniversary of the imperial couple in 1879 by Hans Makart (chromolithography: 503 × 165 mm)

At the opening of the canal, which is very important for worldwide shipping, the Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph also attended the Lloyd steamers “Pluto”, “Vulcan” and “America”, which were in the first convoy to pass the canal. From now on, destinations such as Port Said (from 1869), Bombay (from 1870), Colombo , Singapore (from 1880), Hong Kong (from 1880), Shanghai (from 1881), Nagasaki (from 1892) and Yokohama (from 1892) be controlled. Benefiting from government subsidies and the rapid connections from Trieste to the eastern Mediterranean and through the Suez Canal, Österreichischer Lloyd developed into one of the largest shipping companies in the world.

Vienna World Exhibition 1873 and move to the new Lloydpalast

Lloyd participated in the Vienna World Exhibition in 1873 with its own pavilion . Its great economic importance in imperial Austria was also reflected in its participation in the pageant across Vienna's Ringstrasse designed by the painter Hans Makart on the occasion of the silver wedding anniversary of the imperial couple . For this purpose, together with the Donau-Dampfschiffahrts-Gesellschaft, a float was equipped that carried a cog and carried the flags of both companies in front of it.

In 1879 the company headquarters, which was originally in the Palazzo de Cassis on the Piazza della Borsa, moved from the Tergesteo to the new Lloyd Palace on the Piazza Grande . Its architect was Heinrich von Ferstel , who had already planned the university and the Votive Church in Vienna . At that time, from around 1878 to 1884, the Austro-Hungarian Lloyd was just experiencing the upswing of the international boom in the shipping business. However, the company took over financially because these positive economic conditions were viewed as permanent.

50th company anniversary in 1886, start of economic problems

The Lloyd steamship company, founded in 1836, celebrated its 50th anniversary in 1886 and, as a prelude to the festivities, saw the launch of the Imperator destined for the East Asia service , with 4,140 tons, 117 meters in length, 13 meters in width and a draft of 7.3 meters and 4,500 hp the largest and most magnificent ship of the now 86 steamships society was celebrated like a folk festival. However, the company had gradually slipped into the red, which could not be abandoned even with the commissioning of the sister ship the Imperator , the Imperatrix , in 1888 . In 1890 the deficit reached over 600,000 guilders. In addition, excessively high transport costs made even Hamburg shipping companies such great competition for Mediterranean shipping that a return to profitability on their own was extremely unlikely. So when Austria increased the subsidy, Hungary left the company. From 1891 the company name was therefore again Österreichischer Lloyd . The Hungarian government made its previous financial contribution to the Lloyd to the Hungarian shipping company " Adria ", which has already been profitable. Fiume, the port and headquarters of the Hungarian shipping companies, thus became an even stronger competitor for Trieste and Lloyd.

Restructuring and reorganization from the 1890s to 1914

Company restructuring in the 1890s and strike by Lloyd employees in 1902

Loan from 1895 for 1000 guilders (253 mm × 377 mm)

After Hungary left the company, the reorganization of the company began in the 1890s, which meant a reform and reorganization. Old ships that were no longer up-to-date for regular services, for example, were only used for extra-tour transport trips. The company experienced another last phase of boom, which increased again sharply from around 1906 until the outbreak of war. Ores were transported from Spain for the blast furnaces in Servola (a district of Trieste), rice from Burma for the rice husking factories in Trieste, wood to Egypt and even sugar to the Levant and from there to India and the Red Sea . In order to supply fresh capital to the company, was supported by the General Meeting of Shareholders of 15 May 1895 approving the kk Ministry of Trade to issue a priority bond of 4.2 million guilders, to be repaid from 1906 to 1955 by lottery according to "payback" plan . Lloyd's entire assets served as security for the owners.

In 1895 another shipping company was founded in Trieste, which quickly grew to a size similar to that of Lloyd: Austro-Americana . Although the declared main purpose of the company was trade with North America anyway, the areas of activity between Lloyd and Austro-Americana were contractually delimited in order to avoid unnecessary competition from the state perspective. The Austro-Americana therefore made no effort to head for destinations other than North and South America. Both companies were funded by the state: In 1913 Lloyd received 10 million kroner for the entire line operation, Austro-Americana only 1.5 million for individual lines to South America.

In 1897, African ports were approached for the first time at their own risk. The success was little, however, and with the aftermath of the Second Boer War these trips were stopped. In 1902 the society experienced the first and at the same time most severe workers' uprising. Initially only the ship's heaters went on strike, but later thousands from the Trieste workers also joined. A total of 10,000 workers were on strike when bloody clashes with law enforcement officers broke out on February 14, 1902. The result was 14 dead and over 50 injured. The demands for the abolition of the two-hour Corvée service (service at sea after the watch), reduction of working hours in the port by 2.5 hours to 8 hours and the abolition of the requirement that half of the crew must remain on board of all ships in port , were not met on the whole, but some of the strikers were found to be right in arbitration proceedings.

In the galley of the steamship Africa
SS Bohemia , first with the SS Thalia cruise ship of the OIL in 1906

Relocation of company headquarters, cruise program and spin-off of the Lloyd shipyard

Due to the new contract between the oil company and the government dated May 12, 1906, which was again to be valid for 15 years, the general meeting of shareholders and the board of directors were relocated to Vienna with effect from January 1, 1907, but the company's headquarters remained in Trieste . This compromise settlement was preceded by hard disputes between the city of Trieste and its trading circles as well as the Viennese government circles, who wanted to relocate the company management completely to the Austrian capital in order to be able to exercise the bureaucratic control of the company better. Trieste pointed out that the majority of the shipping companies had installed their management at the main place of their economic activity - such as the headquarters of Norddeutscher Lloyd in Bremen, HAPAG in Hamburg or the White Star Line in Liverpool - in order to have direct contact with business activities .

During this time, the company also introduced the so-called " pleasure rides ". After corresponding trips had previously been carried out quite successfully with the Bohemia (commissioned in 1896), the Thalia , which was built as a passenger and cargo ship as early as 1886, was converted and from 1907 onwards was the first Lloyd's “white ship” to invite exclusively to “pleasure trips” in the Mediterranean or in the North Sea a. Also in 1907 there was an extension of the recently expired Lloyd contract with the Austrian government, which increased the state mileage due to the higher speed standards and the discontinuation of the Dalmatian lines.

In 1909, for financial and organizational reasons, the Lloyd shipyard was outsourced to its own company, in which Austrian Lloyd and the Stabilimento Tecnico Triestino company each held 50 percent. Only the repair and dry docks remained with Lloyd. Since ships could now also be built for other companies, the outsourcing brought better utilization of the shipyard and thus financial relief.

SS Helouan , drawing by Harry Heusser (postcard with stamp from 1913)

75th anniversary

The company celebrated its 75th anniversary in 1911 with the commissioning of the largest ships to date, the express steamers Wien and Helouan , each with 7,367 tons, which were used on the Trieste-Alexandria route - which has always been the most profitable route. On this and other lines, the Lloyd was able to assert itself so well against the international competition because, according to tradition, the kitchen was excellent, the officers and staff worked correctly and the furnishings were comfortable. According to a phrase, the ships are said to have been so punctual that "the Orientals directed their chronometers and the muezzin his prayer" ( Horst Friedrich Mayer, Dieter Winkler :) after them. The company also honored the anniversary with an almost 150-page commemorative publication designed by Remigius Geyling in the Art Nouveau style. It contained a company history, extensive statistical material on the development of Lloyd and in particular its fleet. The formative personalities of Lloyd, such as Karl von Bruck or Elio Freiherr von Morpurgo, were depicted. For some ships, side elevations, deck plans and longitudinal sections (e.g. Arciduco Ludovico , Imperator ) as well as photographs and pictures drawn in color by Harry Heusser (e.g. Baron Gautsch , Thalia ) have been added.

Line expansion in 1912

The largest ships of the Austrian Lloyd in 1914
Ship name build in Launch GRT  (in  t ) PS
Gablonz Trieste May 3, 1912 8,448 8,000
Marienbad Trieste January 23, 1913 8,448 8,000
Austria Trieste May 4, 1901 7,588 3,300
Helouan Trieste July 24, 1912 7,367 10,000
Vienna Trieste March 4, 1911 7,367 10,000
innsbruck Trieste May 9, 1914 7,077
Nippon Sunderland October 14, 1901 6.317 3,000
Archduke Franz Ferdinand Trieste April 1, 1899 6,046 3,600
China Newcastle March 14, 1900 5,732 3,000
Forward Trieste September 22, 1906 5,980 3,450

The last line extension of Lloyd's was the express line to Shanghai in 1912 . When war broke out in 1914, the fleet had 65 ships with a total of around 235,000 GRT and the company had 6,000 employees. After the state railways, the company had become the most important transport company in the monarchy. The largest and most modern ships were the Gablonz, commissioned in 1912 and 1913, and its sister ship, the Marienbad . Several large ships were built or started during the war. These included the Pilsna with 8,040 tons, which was completed in 1918 and taken over by Lloyd Triestino in 1919, and the 8,051 t ship Cracovia , which began in 1916 and would have been the third largest ship in the fleet. It was not completed until 1920 by Lloyd Triestino.

Lloyd agencies

Lloyd maintained agencies for its sales activities mainly in the Mediterranean countries; larger general agencies were located in Vienna (from 1905: I. , Kärntnerring 6), Berlin ( Unter den Linden  47) and Prague ( Wenzelsplatz  66). Mostly independent commercial offices acted as agents in overseas cities such as Batavia , Buenos Aires or Port Sudan and as passage agents and information centers in European cities and acted as contact points for passengers.

Austrian Lloyd in the First World War

At the beginning of World War I, many Lloyds ships were scattered across the world's oceans. Some ships had to seek shelter in neutral harbors, many were taken by the k. u. k. Navy needed for transports and as hospital ships . The fate of the ships in concrete terms (not mentioned mostly stayed in safe havens):

  • 08 ships were confiscated in enemy ports:
    • to England: Körber (Shanghai express steamer), Ezh. Franz Ferdinand (Japan mail steamer) and Marquis Bacquehem
    • to France: Marienbad (confiscated in Greece)
    • to China: Bohemia. Silesia and China (all three confiscated in Shanghai)
    • to Portugal: Vorwärts (found shelter in the Indo-Portuguese port of Marmugao in 1914, but was confiscated there after two years by Portugal and continued to operate as India . Since Portugal had never declared war on Austria-Hungary, Lloyd asked for the ship to be returned or a replacement payment. Portugal responded but with a declaration of war, which was supposed to justify the seizure afterwards. The ship burned down in the port of Lisbon in 1921.)
  • 01 ship survived the war in a neutral port: Thalia (in Amsterdam )
  • 07 ships were brought to a naval base in the difficult-to-reach bay of Lago di Scardona in safety and disarmed.
The SS Wien (1911), one of the two most powerful ships in the fleet, served as a hospital ship during the First and Second World War, now at Lloyd Triestino , until it was sunk in 1941.
  • 05 ships were used as hospital ships: Vienna , Helouan , Africa , Elektra , Tyrol
  • 28 ships were requisitioned as transports for the Austro-Hungarian Balkan Army . 10 of them were protected by the k. u. k. Kriegsmarine damaged in the course of the war, eleven sunk by mines or enemy fire.

The 33 Lloyd ships used in the war resulted in numerous deaths due to accidents, shelling and run-up to mines. Only a few examples are given below. The first catastrophe was the sinking of Baron Gautsch , who ran into a mine in front of Brijuni and sank (see Austrian Merchant Navy, section Accidents ) . The biggest catastrophe, however, was the sinking of Linz, which was used as a transport ship for the Balkan Army . On the night of March 18-19, 1918, the ship sank after being torpedoed off the Albanian coast near Cape Rodon . The cabins of the sleeping passengers were below deck, which is why most of them were surprised by the falling water while they were sleeping. Of the more than 3,000 passengers, only 291 survived (older data speak of 663 dead and an unknown number of survivors). Several times, Lloyd transporters or hospital ships torpedoed by French submarines were able to save themselves on land or in a port. For example, the Elektra , which had only two deaths after the French torpedoing, and was able to save itself from sinking by running into a beach, and the Tirol , which had 40 deaths after the torpedo, but from another Lloyd ship to the Naval base Pola could be towed and repaired.

The company after the dissolution of the k. u. k. monarchy

Decree of November 4, 1918 appointing Lodovico Jeroniti as commissioner of the oil, heralding the end of old Lloyd

In the five years of the war, the company had accumulated a loss of over 15 million kroner. On November 4, 1918, Lodovico Jeroniti was appointed provisional commissioner of Lloyd by the governor of Venezia Giulia , Carlo Petitti di Roreto. The old board of directors resigned on November 28, 1918 "due to changed circumstances". The Banca Commerciale Italiana bought the company after the intervention of the Italian government at a price of 1,000 lire per share from the previous owner, the Vienna Union Bank. Initially, as stipulated in the Paris suburb agreements, the ships continued under an inter-allied (white-blue-white) flag. As early as 1919, connections to the Levant, India and the Far East were resumed and the agency network was rebuilt, but only cargo ships drove. At the end of 1920, 125 agencies were already in operation again. When the danger was averted that the Lloyd could be confiscated as spoils of war by one of the Allied powers (which was excluded in the Anglo-Franco-Italian Agreement of 1921), passenger service was resumed. In 1921 the company was renamed Lloyd Triestino and continued to operate with 40 remaining ships, and expanded in the following years and decades. To purchase new ships, the capital was increased from 100 to 150 million lire in 1926 .

In 1998, Lloyd Triestino was bought by the Taiwanese group Evergreen Marine and continued as a subsidiary. In March 2006, Lloyd Triestino was renamed Italia Marittima.

Lines

The lines to India and the Far East

The first ship on the new line from Trieste to Bombay was the SS "Apis", which started its 25-day voyage on January 31, 1870, followed by the SS "Sphinx", which cast off a month later and Bombay as early as 21 Days reached. On the total of five round trips, Lloyd gained valuable experience in operating long-distance destinations. A passenger ticket in the saloon class cost £ 40 sterling, the deck passenger had to pay £ 16 10 shillings. The return freight from Bombay consisted mainly of cotton for Central Europe.

After the interruption of the travel route by the Franco-German War , the combined cargo and passenger steamer "Oreste" resumed regular service at the end of 1870, followed by the freighter "Iris". In addition to the aforementioned steamers, the line sailed the "Aurora", "Vesta" and "Uranus" built in Scotland, which could accommodate 48 passengers in first and 28 in second class. In the sailing lists from the end of 1871 and 1872 the SS “Flora” and “Galatia” and a few other ships could also be found.
In the mid-1870s, the Bombay Line was operated monthly, with ships with only a small passenger capacity (“Dido”, “Memfi”, “Calypso”) and ships designated as passenger steamer (“Castore”, “Ettore”, “Polluce”) “) Are used. In 1876 the Bombay Line was increased to two trips a month. After the new postal contract between Vienna and Lloyd came into effect on July 1, 1878, the new Calcutta line was opened by the steamer "Memfi" in November of the same year. At the end of 1879 the Bombay Line was extended to Colombo , and at the beginning of 1880 the "Ettore" left Bombay for Singapore. In the same year Lloyd ships anchored in the port of Hong Kong. In the mid-1880s, the cruising speed was increased: Bombay was reached with an average of 10 knots and Hong Kong with nine. New ships of 2,700 t (“Berenice” and “Orion”, the first steel ship “Pandora” and “Medusa”) were put into service for this purpose. Later the sister ships "Titania" (from May 1888: "Maria Teresa") and "Elektra" (both 3,073 t) were added. Finally, in 1884/85 the larger ships (3,850 t) “Amphitrite” and “Poseidon” were able to strengthen the fleet for the Far East.
But there were also setbacks: when Lloyd opened the sideline from Singapore to Surabaya, which had been on the drawing board for 20 years, in 1891, its competitors Koninklijke Paketvaart Maatschappij and Messageries Maritimes were already active. After only ten trips with the "Galatea" the line was discontinued. As a result of the new postal contract of 1891, the "Gisela" (sister ship of the "Marie Valeria") was sent on the voyage from Shanghai to Kobe in February 1893 ; In 1894 the "Melpomene" extended the service to Yokohama. In 1899 a freight line was established between Shanghai and Bombay, at the same time Shanghai fell out as an intermediate port on the main line Trieste – Bombay – Japan.
Since the Lloyd attacked the German East Africa Line with its efforts to establish an East Africa connection , this in return pushed Lloyd into traffic with Bombay (SS "General") from March 1904. The settlement agreement ultimately resulting from this conflict ended the activities of Lloyd in East Africa traffic until the end of 1906, so that the SS “Africa” and “Koerber” formerly deployed there strengthened the Bombay line - here they should, assisted by SS “Imperator "And" Bohemia "will do their service as flagships for the next six years - especially since the" Imperatrix "near Crete was lost on February 21, 1907. The “Imperator” also suffered the fate of her sister ship just two years later and had to be replaced by the “Semiramis”.
In 1913 the "Gablonz" and the "Marienbad" took over the express service between Trieste and Bombay - ships with 2 chimneys and 8,500 tons, which can accommodate 150 passengers of the first, 30 of the second and 100 of the third class and they travel at a speed of Could carry 16 knots. The SS "Hungaria" (II) and "Innsbruck", manufactured at the San Rocco shipyard in Trieste, were in the equipment when the shots from Sarajevo marked the end of Austrian Lloyd's Far East traffic.

State of the lines before the beginning of the First World War

Until the outbreak of World War I in 1914, Österreichischer Lloyd operated the following regular lines (only the most important ports on the lines are mentioned):

lili rere
Waybill of December 22, 1852, transport of 2 cases of liqueur from Bari to Trieste (190 × 200 mm)
lili rere
2nd class ticket, Alexandria – Constantinople ( Cospoli ) on May 21, 1859 with the Stambul (225 × 287 mm)

For many lines, attempts were made to associate the names of the ships used with Austria or destination ports. Ships with city names such as Bregenz , Brünn , Leopolis , Linz , Graz and Prague were used on the express line to Greece and Constantinople . On the mail steamer line to the Levant and the Black Sea, the ships were named after countries ( Carinthia , Carniolia , Dalmatia , Salzburg , Styria , Tyrol ) and health resorts ( Abbazia , Gastein , Karlsbad , Meran ). Another group was formed by the ships with names from mythology and ancient history ( Amphitrite , Elektra , Euterpe , Urano , Cleopatra and Seramis ), which also sailed the Levant Line.

Accidents

Two collisions with ships belonging to foreign companies occurred only shortly after business operations began. In November 1837 the Lloyd steamer Arciduca Ludovico collided with the French steamer Dante in the waters off Scio and 17 days later with the French steamer Leonidas in the port of Constantinople. Arbitrary acts by the established lines against their young competitor, Österreichischer Lloyd, were assumed to be the cause of the clashes rather than human error. State Chancellor Prince Metternich intervened with the French government to prevent the "recurrence of similar encounters".

Closure mark blue Austrian-Hungarian. Lloyd.JPG
Blue (german)
Closure mark brown Lloyd Austro-Ungarico.jpg
Brown (Italian)
Closure mark purple austriaco-hungarico.JPG
Purple (Italian)


Sealing marks on the back of letters from Österreichischer Lloyd from Tergesteum to Vienna (1875)
Four-masted barque SSS " Beethoven " (1904 - 1914 missing)
SS "Achille" (1874–1913) around 1890 (Photo from Gatscher-Riedl: "Flottenkatalog", p. 71)

Internal mail

At least from the time of the existence of the Austro-Hungarian Lloyd, the use of seal marks with the shipping company logo and the inscription “Dampfschiffahrt-Gesellschaft” is known for letters sent to customers. They come in German and Italian as well as several colors, e.g. B. blue, brown, purple and green. Later on, the shipping company coat of arms was printed on the back of the envelopes and the two-line lettering “OESTERR. LLOYD / TRIEST “printed.

Participation in the sailing training ship Beethoven

In Austria, too, obtaining the captain's and helmsman's patents was linked to a certain embarkation time on a sailing ship. Since their number continued to decline, the Austrian wanted to use a sailing training ship in order to be able to thoroughly train the offspring for the ship commands. After long financing problems, a shipping association with the participation of Österreichischer Lloyd - other co-financing shipping companies were Austro-Americana , Tripcovich and Navigazione Libera Triestina - in 1913 the 100 m (Lüa) long four-masted barkentine Beethoven from the shipping company Daniel Steen, Tønsberg - previously it ran up 1911 at AC de Freitas & Co. (Hamburg) -, buy. On her maiden voyage in 1914, she drove with a cargo of coal (3,104 t) on March 29, 1914 from Newcastle (NSW) to Valparaíso . However, she never got there. It has since been considered lost. With the outbreak of the First World War on August 1, 1914, the fate of the ship and its crew of 36 men were soon forgotten; the loss of Austria's direct access to the open sea as a result of the First World War did the rest.

Illustrations of Lloyd's ships on his behalf

The long tradition, which also serves to represent the economic strength of a shipping company, of commissioning ship painters to depict ships in service, was also followed by Lloyd. Since the early days of the company, many pictures of ships have been created that have captured the outer shape of the ocean-going vessels in great detail and thus make an important contribution to the history of the fleet. The first depiction of a fleet of 10 ships dates back to 1838 by the Trieste artist Lorenzo Butti. Even later, well-known marine painters were commissioned to paint the ships in the maritime environment, such as Basi Ivancovich ( SS "Imperator" , 1888), or Harry Heusser , who u. a. painted the sister ships SS "Wien" and SS "Helouan", which were put into service in 1911 and 1912 respectively . The latter created an extensive series of colored postcards around 1910 that show the ships, including ports and landscapes, which they passed while on duty. Giuseppe Miceu (1873–1909) was employed directly at Lloyd at the beginning of the 20th century. a. SS "Baron Gautsch" painted.

Very soon the interest in photography as a new medium emerged in the 3rd section of Lloyd , its independent publishing company. In the "Osservatore Triestino" published by him, daguerreotypes were reported as early as 1839 , and in 1855 a photo studio was set up. But it was probably only between 1885 and 1890 that a systematic photographic recording of the Lloyd fleet took place. The ships were captured on 72 pictures by the well-known Trieste photographer Giuseppe Wulz on photo plates as they anchored in the bay in front of Muggia . The albumen prints from the 230–240 mm high and 310–320 mm wide photographs were laminated onto 395 × 400 mm passe- partouts. They contained the name and address of the studio and are archived as a closed collection in the Archivio storico del Lloyd Triestino (ASLT).

reception

In his documentary Das remained vom Doppeladler: Österreichischer Lloyd, Lloyd Austriaco - Triester Schiffahrtsherrlichkeit then and now (episode 5 of a total of 8) Ernst Trost undertook a 59-minute foray through the history of the shipping company in 1989. Rudolf Klingohr made Lloyd 2019 the subject of the documentary Volle Kraft Ahead : On all seas of the imperial era (first part of the three-part successes and tragedies of the K. and K. shipping ) with the participation of Gregor Gatscher-Riedl , Elmar Samsinger and Gabriele Zuna- Kratky . Another 45-minute episode dealt with the sinking of the Linz .

In volume 87 "In Triest loses" of the mosaic by Hannes Hegen from 1964, Lloyd as a travel company operating from Trieste in the Mediterranean and its director Karl Ludwig von Bruck around 1852 were discussed.

See also

literature

  • Bruno Astori, Giuseppe Stefani: Il Lloyd Triestino. Contributo alla storia Italiana della navigazione marittima . Verona MCMXXXVIII - ANNO XVI [1938], Officine grafiche A. Mondadori.
  • Author collective: The Lloyd in Trieste yesterday - today - tomorrow. From Austrian Lloyd to Lloyd Triestino . Lloyd Triestino di Navigazione, Trieste 1987.
  • Ronald E. Coons: Steamships, statesmen and bureaucrats. Austrian policy towards the Steam Navigation Company of the Austrian Lloyd; 1836-1848 . Franz Steiner Verlag, Wiesbaden 1975, ISBN 3-515-01983-9 .
  • Robert Gabriel: The Indian and Far Eastern lines of the Austrian Lloyd . in: maritime history , Newton Abbot, David & Charles 1974, No. 2, p. 110-125 (Vol. 4)
  • Gregor Gatscher-Riedl : Old Austria on the high seas. The fleet album of the Austrian Lloyd. Pictures and traffic history from Austria's maritime past . Kral-Verlag, Berndorf 2017, ISBN 3-99024-682-8 .
  • Giovanni Gerolami: Navi e Servizi del Lloyd Triestino (1836-1949) . Trieste. Stabilimento Tipografico Nazionale 1949 (2nd edition: 1956)
  • Miroslav Hubert: Do světa s parníky Rakouského Lloydu . Mare-Czech, Praha 2010 ( Out into the world with steamers from Österreichischer Lloyd )
  • Horst Friedrich Mayer , Dieter Winkler: Austria - the Austro-Hungarian merchant navy - was in all ports. Edition S, Verlag der Österreichische Staatsdruckerei, Vienna 1987, ISBN 3-7046-0079-2 .
  • Georg Pawlik, Dieter Winkler: The Austrian Lloyd 1836 until today . Weishaupt Verlag, Vienna 1989, ISBN 3-900310-55-6 .
  • Publizistisches Bureau des Österreichischer Lloyd (ed.): Seventy-five Years of Austrian Lloyd 1836–1911 . Austrian Lloyd, Trieste 1911.
  • Oskar Stark: A sunken world - the story of the Austrian Lloyd; Voyages and end of its 62 ships. Rohrer Verlag, Vienna 1959
  • Paolo Valenti: Dal Lloyd Austriaco a Italia Marittima. Navi e servizi dal 1836 ad oggi . Luglio Editore, San Dorligo della Valle - Trieste 2016
  • Dieter Winkler: The adjustment of the Austrian Lloyd in the years 1842 and 1845 . In: Marine - Yesterday, Today. News from the Navy, 1985, Issue 1, p. 8 f.

Web links

Commons : Österreichischer Lloyd  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ The maritime transport of Austria in Hungary . in: Vorarlberger Landes-Zeitung of March 4, 1898 ( digitized version ).
  2. ↑ New design of the Österreichischer Lloyd in Trieste. Trieste 1836. ( online )
  3. ^ Bruno Astori, Giuseppe Stefani: Il Lloyd Triestino. Contributo alla storia Italiana della navigazione marittima . Verona 1938, p. 397
  4. ↑ Historical-topographical travel guide for visitors to this city and its surroundings . Trieste 1857, p. 43.
  5. ↑ Primus-Heinz Kucher, Hubert Lengauer: Movement in the realm of immobility: Revolutions in the Habsburg Monarchy 1848–1849. Böhlau Verlag, Vienna / Cologne / Weimar 2001, ISBN 3-205-99312-8 , p. 191.
  6. ^ Author collective: The Lloyd in Triest yesterday - today - tomorrow. From Austrian Lloyd to Lloyd Triestino . Lloyd Triestino di Navigazione, Triest 1987, p. 66.
  7. ↑ See some references to the Italian Wikipedia L'Osservatore Triestino .
  8. ↑ On January 1, 1886, the Triester Tagblatt , published since 1880, was taken over by Lloyd and continued as the morning edition of the Triester Zeitung .
  9. ↑ see Anton Schlossar:  Pachler, Faust . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 53, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1907, pp. 160-165.
  10. ^ Author collective: The Lloyd in Triest yesterday - today - tomorrow. From Austrian Lloyd to Lloyd Triestino . Lloyd Triestino di Navigazione, Triest 1987, p. 72 f., And August Mandl: From Vienna to Triest, along with trips from Bodenbach, Olomouc, Krakow, Linz, Pesth to Vienna and from Trieste to Venice. Travel guide for all stations of the KK Priv. Südbahn (complete volume IV), 2nd, ext. Edition. Trieste 1860, p. 175.
  11. ^ Author collective: The Lloyd in Triest yesterday - today - tomorrow. From Austrian Lloyd to Lloyd Triestino . Lloyd Triestino di Navigazione, Triest 1987, p. 65 ff.
  12. ↑ Compare the status of the company at that time in the report on the 11th General Assembly in 1846 in the Journal of Österreichischer Lloyd on May 9, 1846 ( Anno-digitized ).
  13. ↑ At Anno , the building description contained in the Allgemeine Bauzeitung 1857, pp. 422–426 (illustrations pp. 129–134), along with several plans of the Lloyd arsenal, can be viewed online.
  14. ^ Eduard Heider: The construction of the combined slip and dry dock in the new arsenal of the Austrian Lloyd in Trieste. A contribution about the use of the Santorini soil for hydraulic structures. Triester Lloyd, Triest 1856 online
  15. ↑ The spelling of the ship names follows the table "The Flotte des Österreichischer Lloyd 1836–1918". in: Georg Pawlik, Dieter Winkler: The Austrian Lloyd 1836 until today . Weishaupt Verlag, Graz 1986, p. 132.
  16. ↑ The new line - here via Aden- Bombay - was also used from October 15 to November 21, 1881 by the famous natural scientist Ernst Haeckel , who received great praise for the Lloyd service on board the SS "Helios", which was commissioned in 1881 in his travelogue A Visit to Ceylon ( digitized version ), written in 1883 .
  17. ↑ Hans Makart, E. Stadlin: Hans Makart's pageant of the city of Vienna as homage to the silver wedding of the imperial couple April 27, 1879, faithfully reproduced chromolithographically by E. Stadlin . Moritz Perles, Vienna 1880, 1 (of 46) chromolithographic plate.
  18. ↑ Description of the building together with several draft drawings of the Lloydpalast in the Allgemeine Bauzeitung 1883 No. 4 in Anno .
  19. ↑ Seventy-five Years of Austrian Lloyd 1836–1911 . Österreichischer Lloyd, Triest 1911, p. 85 ff.
  20. ↑ As the red stamp and an assignment note dated November 3, 1923 on the reverse of the eight-page bond certificate (front see illustration) show, Lloyd Triestino initially continued to serve the bond .
  21. ^ Bruno Astori, Giuseppe Stefani: Il Lloyd Triestino. Contributo alla storia Italiana della navigazione marittima . Verona 1938, p. 392.
  22. ↑ There is an advertising brochure for 1906 entitled “Österreichischer Lloyd. III. Pleasure Tour from October 2nd to 21st, 1906 ”for a trip in the Mediterranean. The Viennese newspaper of April 17, 1906 ( online ) and October 10, 1906 ( online ) also reported on Bohemia's pleasure trips .
  23. ^ Pester Lloyd , January 30, 1907 ( ANNO digitized version )
  24. ↑ Austria was in all ports. 1987, p. 63
  25. ↑ Compare: Constantin von Wurzbach : Morpurgo, Elio Freiherr . In: Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich . 19th part. Kaiserlich-Königliche Hof- und Staatsdruckerei, Vienna 1868, p. 106 ( digitized version ).
  26. ↑ a b c Oskar Stark: A sunken world. 1959, p. 145 ff.
  27. ↑ orf.at: Austria's Titanic - The catastrophe of the Lloyd steamer Linz ( Memento from May 2, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) , report on the ORF program Alpha Austria , broadcast on March 18, 2003, 9 p.m., ORF. (Website accessed on June 11, 2009)
  28. ^ Bruno Astori, Giuseppe Stefani: Il Lloyd Triestino . Verona [1938], p. 416 / A [nn]
  29. ↑ In 2007 an auction house for historical securities offered a share in Lloyd Triestino Società di Navigazione designed by the artist Paolo Klodic de Sabladoski (1887–1961) for L 400, gutowski.de (PDF) accessed April 4, 2015.
  30. ^ Robert Gabriel: The Indian and Far Eastern lines of the Austrian Lloyd . in: Maritime history, David & Charles, Newton Abbot 1974, No. 2 (Vol. 4), p. 110-125
  31. ↑ Constantinople . In: Meyers Konversations-Lexikon . 5th, completely revised edition . Bibliographisches Institut, Leipzig and Vienna 1896, Volume 10, p. 491. Cospoli . In: The Great Brockhaus . Fifteenth, completely revised edition . FA Brockhaus, Leipzig 1929, Volume 4, p. 247.
  32. ↑ The fare of 50.75 guilders was paid with £ 5 sterling at the rate of 97½ piasters ( 487½ piasters) each , as can be seen from the note on the upper edge.
  33. ↑ a b c d Gregor Gatscher-Riedl: Old Austria on the high seas. The fleet album of the Austrian Lloyd. Pictures and traffic history from Austria's maritime past . Berndorf 2017, p. 66 ff.
  34. ↑ Compare the Italian Wikipedia for NLT .
  35. ↑ The technical data and the appearance of the ship launched by Greenock & Grangemouth Dockyard Co. in January 1904 can be found on the website for ship model building Jocham ships . Further information can be found at Mayer, Winkler: Austria - The Austro-Hungarian Merchant Navy was in all ports . Vienna 1987, p. 118. The perished crew included the commander and his wife, 3 officers - including Giovanni Cosulich from the famous Trieste shipowner family of the same name - a crew of 12 and 19 cadets. Beethoven's sister ship was the Mozart (1904).
  36. ^ Author collective: The Lloyd in Triest yesterday - today - tomorrow. From Austrian Lloyd to Lloyd Triestino . Trieste 1987, p. 125.
  37. ^ Website of the ORF III production [1] .
  38. ↑ Website with table of contents [2] .
  39. ↑ Compare the contents of the booklet on the Mosapedia website .
  40. ↑ Compare the contemporary advertisement for this volume in The Tourism of October 8, 1911 ( ANNO digitized version ).
This version was added to the list of articles worth reading on October 24, 2006 .