The Weser
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The paddle steamer The Weser was put into operation on May 6, 1817 and is considered the first steamship built by a German shipbuilder and operated by a German shipowner . It drove on the route between Bremen and Brake from 1817 to 1833 . From 1827 the ship operated via Brake to Geestemünde .
history
prehistory
After the end of the Napoleonic wars in 1814, the lifting of the blockade of the German seaports by the British navy as part of the continental blockade and the confirmation of Bremen's independence at the Congress of Vienna , the Hanseatic city experienced a lively upswing in the economy and sea trade . This was countered by the poor fairway conditions of the lower Weser , which was difficult for seagoing ships to navigate due to the advancing silting , so that the goods had to be reloaded in Brake to slow river ships with a shallow draft . Alternatively, mail and passengers could only get to Bremen via the arduous land route.
In this situation, the Bremen businessman Friedrich Schröder developed the idea of using steamships on the Weser in order to establish a much faster and more comfortable connection on the river. After the first successful use of steam vessels in regular service on the Hudson River between New York and Albany by Robert Fulton in 1807 the possibilities of steam navigation began in Europe, especially in England and France, to arouse great interest. Schröder therefore decided to apply to the Bremen Senate for a license for a corresponding company .
“Among the most useful inventions to which the human mind has fallen in recent years, that claims to set great masses in motion by the force of steam, certainly one of the first stages. […] If we cannot boast of the invention of this invention, which is so extremely important and useful for trade and shipping, we should, I think, secure ourselves from the reproach that we are indifferent to the progress of other nations watch; rather, by adopting such a salutary invention, seek to bring relief to our trade and shipping [...]. "
With the support of the future mayor Johann Smidt , the Bremen Senate granted Schröder on June 18, 1816 a privilege to operate steamboats on the Weser with a term of 15 years, which was also granted in a comparable form by the Weser neighboring states of Oldenburg (for 10 years) and Hanover (for 15 years) was granted.
construction
Initially, Schröder wanted to acquire an existing ship and for this purpose went to England and Scotland in 1816, accompanied by master shipbuilder Johann Lange , engineer Ludwig Georg Treviranus and captain Zacharias Spilcker. However, the search did not produce a satisfactory result, as the size and quality of the ships examined did not meet the requirements of the entrepreneur.
As a result, the decision was made to build a suitable ship under the direction of Treviranus at the Johann Lange shipyard (a predecessor of the Bremer Vulkan shipyard ) in Grohn. The machine required for this was ordered from the London-based brother-in-law Schröders from Boulton & Watt , the company of steam engine pioneer James Watt , in Soho near Birmingham and installed in the ship according to the technical specifications from England. The launching of the ship took place on December 30, 1816 the first test drives in early February 1817th
To reassure his fellow citizens, who were skeptical of the new technology due to two steamship accidents in the USA and England, engineer Treviranus published a detailed description of the functioning of the built-in machine and its special safety devices in the Bremer Zeitung a few days before the ship's maiden voyage .
"[...] To protect against all danger [...] the safety valve (savety valve) on the boiler and the steam gauge, which is divided into degrees, are used. […] In our local steamboat, the maximum expansive force which the vapors can obtain is no greater than that each square inch of the kettle is pressed by a force of only about 3.5 pounds, at which pressure the valve closes opening begins. It will be clear to everyone that this force will never be able to drive apart a cauldron made of thick plates of the best forged iron, connected with strong rivet nails. As far as I know, there is really still no example that the boiler of a steam engine operating on the principle of Messrs Boulton and Watt would have burst. "
business
The ship's maiden voyage on May 6, 1817 from Vegesack to Bremen, in which numerous dignitaries from Bremen, Oldenburg and Hanover took part, turned out to be a great success and took place with keen interest from the population. Another special trip for invited guests followed, which led to Verden an der Aller .
“The enjoyment of the first ascent, which its splendor brought me and about a hundred others, was unique and was like a triumphal procession. Today he [Friedrich Schröder] swam through Verden under the bridge with his proud and gently floating vehicle. "
During the 16 years of operation, Zacharias Spilcker (1817–1821), Friedrich Wiegmeyer (1822–1831) and Tönjes Steffens (1832–1833), all three from Bremen, served as captains. The liner service began on May 20, 1817. The ship cast off at seven o'clock in the morning at the Wichelnburg near St. Stephen's Church and drove via Vegesack and Elsfleth (each with a ten-minute stop) to Brake. The return journey to Bremen started at 2 p.m. According to an announcement by Schröder in the Bremer Zeitung of May 18, 1817, the fares were calculated as follows:
| route | 1st Class | 2nd Class |
| from Bremen to Vegesack (or back) | 0 thalers, 48 grotes | 0 thalers, 36 grotes |
| from Bremen to Elsfleth and Brake (or back) | 1 thaler, 24 grotes | 1 thaler , 0 grote |
| Children under 12 years each half | ||
During the entire lifespan of the steamship, the adverse river conditions consistently threatened the company's profitability. Scheduled mail and passenger transport was often only guaranteed during floods, so that Schröder had to refrain from making a return trip from Bremen to Brake in one day in 1817. Instead, the Weser drove on one day with the flood from Bremen to Brake and on the following day, again with the flood, back to Bremen. From 1818 the section from Bremen to Vegesack even had to be temporarily closed completely, as the silting of the river between the confluence of the Ochtum and the Lesum made shipping particularly dangerous and the fairway was blocked by slow Weser barges .
For the period from 1817 to 1823, Schröder calculated a loss of 1120 thalers for the company, which was also due to the deployment of a second ship from 1818, the Duke of Cambridge steamboat built at the shipyard by Peter Sager on the route between Bremen and Vegesack, change nothing. The attempt to persuade the state of Bremen to take over the company (or the losses) in 1824 was rejected by the convoid deputation with reference to the contractual provisions of the privilege:
“[Mr Schröder knew the] shallow, difficult to improve condition of the Weser and, regardless of this, set up steam shipping [...]. He wanted the profit alone, so it is no longer cheap that he should also bear the loss. "
After the steamship operations were interrupted for an extended period in the spring of 1826 for unknown reasons, the Senate even revoked Schröder's privilege, which, however, had no further consequences, since it was not until 1834 - after the end of Schröder's company - with Johann's Long operated Bremen a new steamship on the Unterweser was put into operation.
In the period from 1817 to 1827, Die Weser and Duke of Cambridge (the latter with only a small percentage) carried a total of 83,291 passengers, 10,000 of them in the year it was opened. No figures have been obtained for the following years until the ship was decommissioned. From 1827, when Bremerhaven was founded by Mayor Johann Smidt , the ship also called at Geestemünde . In 1833 Schröder finally stopped operating the ship. It was scrapped soon after its last trip on November 14th from Brake to Bremen.
The ship
Structure and equipment
The hull, painted dark green, was 24 meters long and 4.2 meters wide. The main deck was essentially formed by a gangway (gallery) protruding laterally over the hull , which increased the usable width of the ship to seven meters and gave it a bulbous character.
The two cabin houses for a total of 80 people rose above the main deck. The front accommodated the second class cabin , the rear a restoration kitchen, the first class cabin and the ladies' cabin. In between was the ship's engine room. The first class was equipped with high-quality furnishings made of mahogany wood and upholstered furniture, the second with a much simpler one made of fir wood .
The end of the cabins was the upper deck, on which there were benches for the passengers. The aft deck was also covered with a sun tent. Immediately behind the mast, on which a square sail could be stretched, was the nine-meter-high chimney, which was decorated with a crown-shaped decoration. The chimney and mast could be folded down for passage under the Weser bridge in Bremen. The bow of the ship was formed by a snail-shaped galion , at the stern it carried a bacon flag , which was supplemented on the inner edge by the coats of arms of Bremen, Oldenburg and Hanover.
“I boarded the steamship after it arrived at the port [in Bremen] and found the most tasteful interior. In particular, the cabin [first class] resembles a small splendid room and is furnished with sofas, foot covers, mirrors and even with an excellent, carefully selected reference library [...] Even a steam kitchen is very economically linked to the whole. The top [upper deck] is very spacious and has padded green benches all around. "
Machine and drive
The Boulton & Watt low-pressure steam engine was in the front third of the ship. The engine's wrought-iron steam boiler took up the starboard side of the engine room, while the steam cylinder with condenser, hot water cistern, balance , linkage and crankshaft were on the port side of the ship.
The kettle was 4.26 meters long, 1.21 meters wide and 1.92 meters high. It had a safety valve, a mercury tube manometer and (presumably) a water level indicator. At the back of the boiler was the coal firing, which led into a flame tube that ran twice through the entire length of the boiler before it opened into the chimney made of thin sheet iron . This had a height of 9.14 and a diameter of 0.55 meters.
The machine generated a working pressure of 0.24 kg / cm and consumed around 118 kg of coal per hour. With 44 strokes (i.e. 22 revolutions) it produced an output of 14 hp, which was sufficient for a cruising speed of 5.5 knots (about 10 km / h). The machine is said to have had a total weight of almost 16 tons (with water in the boiler).
The two side paddle wheels had a diameter of 2.74 meters and were each provided with six blades, each 1.06 meters long and 0.38 meters wide. By means of a mechanical hoist, which was operated by a winch on deck, the immersion depth of the paddle wheels could be adjusted in order to adapt them to the changing draft of the ship. This was made possible by the fact that the paddle wheels did not sit directly on the main axis, but on their own height-adjustable axis, which was driven by the main axis via gear wheels.
Historical classification
The Weser is referred to in some sources as the first German steamship . However, this is only correct with regard to the building history, since as early as 1816 two steamships built and maintained by English and Scottish shipbuilders and entrepreneurs went into operation in Germany:
- The Lady of the Lake , a ship built by John Gray in Kincardine , Scotland and operated by Peter Kinraid from Glasgow, which sailed on the Elbe between Hamburg and Cuxhaven from June 29, 1816 , but was brought back to Great Britain in 1817 due to a lack of yield.
- The Princess Charlotte of Prussia , a ship built by John B. Humphreys in Pichelsdorf near Berlin, which sailed on the Havel between Berlin and Potsdam from October 27, 1816 , was decommissioned in 1819 and scrapped in 1822.
"If you wanted to be completely correct, you would have to say, 'The Weser' was the first German steamship built by a German shipbuilding engineer, which of course still had an English engine."
In December 2016, Deutsche Post issued the 70-cent special stamp 200 years of the steamship “Die Weser” , which it recognized as “one of the first German steamers” and “pioneering achievement”. According to the Ministry of Finance , of all steamships used in Germany before 1820, the Weser had by far the longest "journey time" (16½ years).
Replica
On June 20, 2008, a non-powered replica of the steamship was launched in Vegesack. The ship was built by the Bremer Bootsbau Vegesack gGmbH (BBV) qualification project on the site of the Bremer Vulkan . The construction took eight years and cost 407,000 euros. Due to the bankruptcy of BBV in 2006, the concept of the ship, which was originally intended to sail the river like its historical model, had to be revised in order to be able to continue the project at all. At the suggestion of Katja Barloschky from Bremer Arbeit GmbH , the German Youth Hostel Association , which initially leased the ship for five years, was included in the planning. Since June 26, 2008, The Weser has been moored at Ponton 8 on the Schlachte directly in front of the Bremen Youth Hostel as a guest ship with 30 beds.
In addition to the corresponding adaptations inside the ship, the replica also clearly differs externally from the historical model in several points: The ship has no paddle wheels (which, however, can be retrofitted later if necessary), a driver's cab was placed on the deck (the original had none), the mast next to the chimney has been omitted, at the stern there is an additional exit to the cabins (instead of the tiller) and the galion is missing at the bow.
literature
- Wolfgang Kiesel: Bremen volcano - rise and fall - 200 years of shipbuilding history . KSZB Verlag, Bremen 1997, ISBN 3-931148-98-X .
- Johannes Lachs: Ships from Bremen - pictures and models in the Focke Museum . Hauschild Verlag , Bremen 1994, ISBN 978-3-929902-06-8 .
- Hermann Raschen: The Weser. The first German steamship and its builders (special print from the yearbook of the Shipbuilding Society , Volume VIII, 1907) . Julius Springer Publishing House, Berlin 1908.
- Herbert Schwarzwälder : History of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen, Volume 2 . Edition Temmen , Bremen 1995, ISBN 978-3-86108-283-5 .
- Hans Szymanski: The beginnings of steam shipping in Lower Saxony and in the adjacent areas from 1817 to 1867, publication by the Lower Saxony Office for State Planning and Statistics . Scientific Society for the Study of Lower Saxony eV, Hanover 1958.
- Shipyard history Bremer Vulkan - Schiffschronik , publisher Bremer Vulkan Schiffbau- und Maschinenfabrik Bremen-Vegesack, 1955.
- Georg Christian Kindt : The first steamboat trip on the Weser and its founder, Friedr. Schröder . In: Naturwissenschaftlicher Verein zu Bremen (Hrsg.): Treatises . Volume 1., C. Ed. Müller, Bremen 1868, pp. 329-344.
- Kurt Grobecker, Hans von Buschmann: Paddle steamer on the Lower Elbe - in scheduled and ferry service, on a seaside trip from 1816 to 1964 . Convent Verlag, Hamburg, 2002, ISBN 3-934613-34-9 .
- Collection of scientific information . State Archive Bremen , different years.
Web links
Footnotes
- ↑ Hans Szymanski: The beginnings of steam shipping in Lower Saxony and in the adjacent areas from 1817 to 1867, publication by the Lower Saxony Office for State Planning and Statistics. Scientific Society for the Study of Lower Saxony eV, Hanover 1958, p. 43.
- ↑ Hermann Raschen: The Weser. The first German steamship and its builders (special print from the yearbook of the Shipbuilding Society, Volume VIII, 1907) . Julius Springer Publishing House, Berlin 1908, p. 46.
- ↑ Hermann Raschen: The Weser. The first German steamship and its builders (special print from the yearbook of the Shipbuilding Society, Volume VIII, 1907) . Julius Springer Publishing House, Berlin 1908, p. 49.
- ↑ The prices are given in the old Bremen currency Taler and Grote (1 Taler corresponds to 72 Grote). For comparison: the possible income of a shoemaker in the Kingdom of Hanover in 1846 without deduction of costs was between 5 thalers and 17 groschen (Groten) and 5 thalers and 1 groschen, which corresponded to two pairs of boots and one pair of shoes.
- ↑ Hans Szymanski: The beginnings of steam shipping in Lower Saxony and in the adjacent areas from 1817 to 1867, publication by the Lower Saxony Office for State Planning and Statistics . Scientific Society for the Study of Lower Saxony eV, Hanover 1958, p. 52.
- ↑ Hans Szymanski: The beginnings of steam shipping in Lower Saxony and in the adjacent areas from 1817 to 1867, publication by the Lower Saxony Office for State Planning and Statistics . Scientific Society for the Study of Lower Saxony eV, Hanover 1958, p. 49.
- ↑ Hermann Raschen: The Weser. The first German steamship and its builders (special print from the yearbook of the Shipbuilding Society, Volume VIII, 1907) . Julius Springer Publishing House, Berlin 1908, p. 41.
- ^ The key - Bremen contributions to German culture and science . Bremen 1942, p. 34.
- ↑ Collection of scientific information . State Archive Bremen, Bremen 1971.
- ↑ Federal Ministry of Finance: Stamp Collection - 200 Years of the Steamship “Die Weser” ( Memento of the original from March 2, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed March 1, 2017.
- ↑ Extra tour . In: German Youth Hostel Association , issue 03/2008, p. 51.
- ↑ Forever at anchor. In: Bremer Nachrichten , June 27, 2008.
