Helvétie (ship, 1926)
The Helvétie is a motor ship powered by paddle wheels on Lake Geneva , which was built in 1926 by the Sulzer brothers in Winterthur as a paddle wheel steamer . The name Helvétie , in German Helvetia , stands for the Latin term Confoederatio Helvetica , today's Switzerland .
It was characterized by the original three-cylinder direct current steam engine exhibited in the Musée du Léman in Nyon . With a length of 78.5 meters and a width of 15.9 meters, it currently has a capacity of 980 people. The ship was completely refurbished for the first time in 1975 and 1977, when it was converted to diesel-electric propulsion. This drive was taken over in a used condition from the Danube tug Goliath , formerly Westmark . Because of its susceptibility to failure, the ship was taken out of service in 2002. It is currently moored in front of the Olympic Museum in Lausanne, where it was used as a temporary exhibition space around 2012 and 2013 during construction work in the museum's buildings.
It is the second ship on Lake Geneva to be named Helvétie . In 1841 Ditchborne & Mare delivered the paddle steamer Helvétie to the Compagnie de l´Helvétie. In 1918 the smooth deck steamer was sold as scrap and demolished due to the very high prices for scrap metal.
The paddle steamer is one of eight paddle steamers from the Compagnie Générale de Navigation sur le Lac Léman (CGN), which received the Europa Nostra Prize of the European Union for European cultural heritage in 2014 for the exemplary preservation of the Belle Époque steamship fleet. These eight paddle steamers still have a significant impact on passenger shipping on the entire Lake Geneva area.
literature
- J. Meister, J. Gwerder, E. Liechti: Shipping on Lake Geneva. Birkhäuser Verlag, Basel 1977.
- Charlotte Kunz: The paddle steamers of Lac Léman. (Swiss art guide. No. 316). Ed. Society for Swiss Art History GSK. Bern 1982, ISBN 3-85782-316-X .
Web links
Footnotes
- ↑ Brochure of the Association des Amis des Bateaux à Vapeur du Léman (ABVL), 2015 edition, page of M / S Helvétie
- ↑ www.museeduleman.ch, Musée du Léman, Bateaux à vapeur du service de transport de passagers, accessed on November 24, 2016
- ↑ www.abvl.ch, Association des amis des bateaux à vapeur du Léman, M / S Helvétie (désarmé), accessed on November 24, 2016
- ↑ ge.ch, French-language commercial register of the canton of Geneva, spelling Compagnie Générale de Navigation sur le Lac Léman for the entry of Michel Jeannet (ship restoration). Accessed on November 29, 2016
- ↑ www.abvl.ch, Communiqué de Press, Europa Nostra, Palmarčs 2014 Prix du patrimoine culturel du de l'UE accessed on November 16, 2016
- ↑ www.rts.ch, Radio Télévision Suisse (RTS), Les bateaux Belle Époque de la CGN sont classés, dated June 17, 2011, accessed on November 16, 2016