Alexandria (ship, 1887)

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The Alexandria , also regularly referred to as the SMY Alexandria , was an inland yacht in the service of the German emperors , which was often used for representation purposes from the construction in 1887 to the end of the empire in 1918. Already in 1849 the Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm IV. In Berlin bought the first inland yacht called Alexandria (paddle wheel steamer ) from the Prussian sea trade , which was sold in 1887 as a civilian tugboat .

Imperial inland yacht "Alexandria"

The new yacht was built on behalf of Kaiser Wilhelm I at the Aron & Gollnow shipyard in Grabow an der Oder . The twin screw steamer was launched in 1887, the exact date is unknown. The water displacement was approx. 90 t, length: 28.00 m (above sea level 29.4 m), width: 4.76 m (above sea level 5.10 m) and draft: 0.7 m (max 0.95 m), speed: 9 knots (11.1 knots on a test drive).

use

Kaiser Wilhelm I visited the yacht in autumn 1887. The sick emperor Friedrich III. was brought in June 1888, shortly before his death, with the Alexandria from Charlottenburg to Potsdam , it was his only trip with the new yacht as German emperor.

The yacht Alexandria was stationed at the sailor station Kongsnæs in Potsdam and was used intensively by Kaiser Wilhelm II in the area of ​​inland waters around Berlin. Visitors to the ship were u. a. the King of Sweden Oskar II (1888), the King of Portugal Ludwig I (1888), the King of Italy Umberto I with the Crown Prince Viktor Emanuel (1889), the Emperor of Austria-Hungary Franz Joseph I with the Heir to the throne Karl (1889), the Austrian Archduke Franz Salvator (1895), Crown Prince Constantine with Crown Princess Sophie of Greece (1900), a Moroccan special embassy (1902), the Crown Prince of Siam Vajiravudh (1902), the (new) King Victor Emanuel III . and the Queen of Italy Elena (1902), King Ferdinand I and the Queen of Bulgaria Marie Louise (1912). In addition, the yacht Alexandria served Kaiser Wilhelm II. U. a. 1906 for the opening voyage on the Teltow Canal and 1914 on the Hohenzollern Canal as well as every year for the traditional trip to Grünau for the Great Rowing Regatta, including at the inauguration of the Berlin-Grünau sports monument .

In 1919 the former imperial inland yacht was sold, cut in two at the Gebrüder Wiemann shipyard in Brandenburg an der Havel, and transported by rail to Austria, where it was converted into a tug for a Yugoslav timber transport company in the Linz shipyard on the Danube , and for a long time to come provided service on the Danube.

literature

  • Donko, Wilhelm M .: SMY "Alexandria". The inland yacht of three German emperors and their fate between the Havel and Danube. - Berlin 2020.
  • Donko Wilhelm M .: The changeful fate of the German imperial yacht ALEXANDRIA. In: Köhlers Flottenkalender 2019, Hamburg 2018, pp. 242–245.
  • Gröner, Erich / Jung, Dieter / Maass, Martin: The German warships 1815–1945. 2nd completely revised and expanded edition. 8 volumes in 9 sub-volumes. Koblenz 1985-1993; with sketches by Erich Gröner, Peter Mickel and Franz Mrva (Yachten: Volume 6, pp. 198–199).
  • Stoffregen-Büller, Michael: On blue Havel floods: ROYAL LOUISE - the frigate of the Prussian kings and the imperial sailor station in Potsdam. Berlin 2016.