Bellevue (ship, 1835)
 As Faulhorn on Lake Brienz
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The Bellevue was a paddle steamer and the first passenger ship on Lake Thun . It was probably the oldest Swiss steamship, of which a daguerreotype has been preserved.
history
In 1834 a company for the introduction of a ship connection between Thun and Neuhaus ordered an iron steamship from the Paris machine factory Cavé. On July 26, 1835, the Bellevue was launched in Thun-Hofstetten, where the ship had been assembled, followed by the maiden voyage five days later. From 1837 there was also a monopoly for the carriage of mail on this steamship.
After a second ship, the sneezing , had been purchased, which was Bellevue on Lake Brienz relocated where they from 1843 under the name of Faulhorn wrong. In 1847 the old Cavé boiler was exchanged for a boiler from Escher Wyss .
In the winter of 1857/58 the ship returned to Lake Thun in a defective condition, where it was repaired and used as a reserve ship, since the Interlaken now operated on Lake Brienz and the fuel consumption of the old ship, which has a speed of 19.3 km / h could achieve, also made the further operation seem uneconomical. However, the former Bellevue was used again on the Aare in the winter of 1859/60 because there was no other ship available that could have sailed with the extremely low water levels at the time. The passengers complained about the uncomfortable old steamer, so that its further use in passenger transport no longer seemed acceptable.
In 1860 the former Bellevue was converted into a tugboat without boiler and engine - these were given to a Thun mechanic named Aeschlimann at a price of 900 francs. In this capacity, she got caught in a violent storm on April 2, 1864. The tug convoy consisted of the tug Neptun , the steamship Helvetia and, at the rear, the Faulhorn . This was loaded with salt that was transported in barrels and sacks. It is believed that the ship's hatches were not locked and that the waves could hit them, so that the vehicle threatened to sink within a very short time.
When the ships were in danger, the connection between Helvetia and Faulhorn was broken. The Faulhorn sank in front of Oberhofen . While two sailors and part of the cargo could be rescued, the ship's helmsman, a man named Glatthard, was killed in the accident.
The wreck of the former Bellevue lies at a depth of 120 meters in front of Oberhofen.
Museum pieces
In addition to the ship organ of the Bellevue , which can still be used in the Thun Castle Museum , a daguerreotype by Joseph-Philibert Girault de Prangey has been preserved . It probably dates from 1847 and shows the ship as a Faulhorn on Lake Brienz. The picture was lost for a long time and came to light again in 2002: It was found, along with 60 other daguerreotypes, in a bundle that had become the property of the Musée gruérien in Bulle in 1950 . When this museum moved in 1978, the pictures were forgotten. After a grandson of Comte Charles de Simony, who had once left the pictures to the Musée gruérien, inquired about it, they researched and found what they were looking for at the Henry Naef Foundation in Dézaley . The recordings were in a small wooden box.
This did not yet identify the ship shown. After an article about the daguerreotypes from Bulle appeared in the magazine Geo , Mark Bachmann, advertising manager at BLS AG , dealt with the recording. After it had been mirrored, Bachmann and his colleagues realized that it was not a picture of Lake Thun, as the caption in Geo had indicated, but a picture of Lake Brienz with the Faulhorn .
Footnotes
- ↑ a b c d ksu, first steamer photo rediscovered. In: Thuner Tagblatt , July 19, 2014 (online at www.thunertagblatt.ch )
- ↑ a b c Bellevue story on www.bluewatersearch.ch ; the author refers to Claude Jeanmaire's book With Coal, Steam and Paddle Wheels .
- ↑ a b c DS Faulhonr , on www.schifffahrt-beo.ch
- ↑ a b c Robert Kujpers, Faulhorn (Vierwaldstättersee) - side paddle steamer , on www.binnenschifferforum.de