The paddle steamer Dresden was built in 1857 in the Karolinenthal shipyard in Prague by the shipbuilding and mechanical engineering company Ruston & Co. The ship was under the name of the city of Dresden on down Kiel .
The ship was put into service as a passenger cargo ship. Two chimneys stood side by side on deck. In 1859 it was renamed Dresden . In the winter of 1868/69 the ship floor was renewed. Between 1868 and 1872 it was used as a tugboat on the Mělník - Hamburg route . In the winter of 1872/73 the ship was rebuilt. It received a new 3-flame tube suitcase boiler. A chimney was removed. After the renovation, it was used as a passenger steamer. In the fall of 1878 it was decommissioned and scrapped in the Blasewitz shipyard .
The steam engine
The steam engine was a low-pressure, two-cylinder, twin, oscillating steam engine with injection condensation. The power was 60 PSi . Like the first two-flame tube trunk boiler, it was built by the Prague shipbuilding and mechanical engineering company Ruston & Co. in 1870/71 the engine was revised and the cylinders drilled out. The power was now 120 hp. In 1874/75 the machine received a new upper frame. After the ship was dismantled, the town of Wehlen , built in 1879, received a steam engine and boiler.