Caroline (ship, 1885)
Karoline around 1905
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The Caroline was a small screw saloon steamer on Lake Constance , which after an accident in 1919 was given the nickname "Potato Steamer" under the name Stadt Radolfzell .
history
The ship originally belonged to the Imperial and Royal State Railways . It was initially used for surveying purposes or was intended for tours and then came to the Zellersee in the Salzkammergut for some time . In 1903 the vehicle was bought by the Mayor of Bregenz , Carl Pedenz. He had the Caroline rebuilt and operated as Karoline in local traffic between Bregenz and Lochau , until Lochau got a landing stage in 1910 that was served by large shipping. Thereupon the Karoline was sold to Radolfzell and from then on provided the regular service between Radolfzell, Iznang and the island of Reichenau under the name Stadt Radolfzell together with the petrol boat Nymphe . During the First World War , the nymph , which as a former sailing ship was a bit smaller than the town of Radolfzell , was used by the Seewache and the town of Radolfzell , also nicknamed "Hannokenkreuzer" - after a name given to the locals who mainly used the ship - was the only ship in service on the routes mentioned.
The potato disaster
In July 1919, the city of Radolfzell was ordered to the island of Reichenau, where it was supposed to pick up 119 hundredweight of new potatoes on behalf of the Radolfzell pension office . This was about twice the normally permitted payload of the ship, which plunged under the load to under the rub rail. After the ship had already covered about two kilometers on its voyage to Radolfzell, the engineer and stoker noticed that the vehicle was slowly filling up through the ash discharge hatch and that the bilge pump was unable to cope with the incoming water. After the skipper gave an emergency signal, the three crew members and five passengers were rescued from fishing boats, but the steamer sank together with the potatoes. After the city of Radolfzell lay aground for a few months at a depth of 17 meters, it was lifted by a Zurich diving company and then towed to Constance . From the spring of 1920, the ship could be used again. It continued to serve the Höri under the Swiss flag .
Stranding
In mid-November 1921, the ship was supposed to make one more evening voyage from Radolfzell to Reichenau, where the travelers were to be connected to a steamer to Stein am Rhein . However, the ship got caught in a storm and finally ran aground on a gravel bank in front of the Genslehorn. Rocket and whistle signals went unnoticed, the steamer could no longer free itself even on its own and water penetrated into the passenger compartment. Since no one came to the aid of the passengers and the crew, they had to spend the night in the wrecked ship, which was knee-deep with water. The ship was only able to get to Constance the next day, where it was repaired again.
The Hohenklingen steamer , which was also supposed to call at Reichenau on the unlucky evening, also did not arrive because it suffered the same fate as the town of Radolfzell . He ran aground at the Zapplerfach between Gottlieben and Ermatingen and was not released during the night either.
End and successor
After the Deutsche Reichsbahn-Gesellschaft was again responsible for shipping traffic in the Radolfzell lake basin from 1924, the ship changed its flag again. His last trip was in May 1928. As part of a Lake Constance tour with members of the Munotverein Schaffhausen , it returned to its old home port of Bregenz before it was scrapped a few months later. The small steamer with the two high masts and the strikingly long, dark chimney was replaced by a new ship, which was also named Stadt Radolfzell .
This successor ship did not exist for long. Since the engine system was not working satisfactorily, the new town of Radolfzell was decommissioned in 1934. It was planned that the vehicle in Kressbronn in the Bodan shipyard should be converted into an auxiliary ship for the Deutsche Reichsbahn in Lindau or at least partially used for this purpose. Instead, however, the ship was cannibalized and sunk in the abyss and the Reichsbahn received a completely newly built service boat with the Greif . This was transported away by the French occupying forces after the end of the Second World War and used as a launch in Rouen until the end of the 1990s .
literature
- Werner Deppert: The steamboat "Stadt Radolfzell". Or how the “potato steamer” came about . Konstanzer Almanach 1977, 23rd year, Verlag Friedr. Stadler, Constance.
- Karl F. Fritz: Adventure steamboat trip on Lake Constance. 2nd Edition. Multi-Media-Verlag Hinze, Meersburg 1990, ISBN 3-927484-00-8 , pp. 67-71.
- Arnulf Dieth: The Austrian shipping on Lake Constance . Hecht-Verlag, Hard 1984
