Nostalgic shipping on the Wörthersee

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Loretto and Lorelei in the Klagenfurt shipyard
Ship's bell of the Lorelei
Nostalgic ship Loretto in Cap Wörth
Evening mood on the nostalgia ship Lorelei

The Wörthersee nostalgic shipping is a branch of the Nostalgiebahnen in Carinthia , which operates a steam-powered standard gauge line in the Rosental (Rosental steam trains) as well as the "Historama - Museum for Technology and Transport" in Ferlach and the Klagenfurt City Transport Museum with the Lendcanaltramway in the Klagenfurt Seendreieck.

history

Liner shipping has existed on Lake Wörthersee since 1853, and has been operated by various companies with varying degrees of success. When Stadtwerke Klagenfurt took over shipping operations at the beginning of the 1920s and bought up most of the rival companies, they acquired two small, diesel-powered units, which were named Loretto and Lorelei , for the operating times when the large steamships were not profitable . The ships were built in the Danube shipyard in Vienna, delivered to Klagenfurt disassembled and assembled in the shipyard on Klagenfurt's Metnitzstrand.

In line operation

From 1924 to 1995, the Loretto and Lorelei, with changing names and changing looks, operated on the Wörthersee. Especially at the end of the Second World War, the two ships were the only operational units, as the large steamships had been laid up for lack of personnel and fuel . In the immediate post-war period, they also ran for the working population on the south bank in the cold season. From around 1975 the Loretto and Lorelei were only intended as a reserve after the new motor ships Klagenfurt and Carinthia were purchased and were rarely used in liner service. The Lorelei sailed result of a remodeling (with elimination of all structures and installation of the control object at the bow) in the 1980s and again the Lendkanal between Klagenfurt Lake and the Lendhafen.

Retirement and use on the Danube

In 1995 the municipal utilities decided to sell the two ships with the support of the responsible politicians. An interested party from Vienna was awarded the contract; he wanted to offer pleasure trips on the Danube Canal and the Danube with the two ships . Members of the nostalgic railways in Carinthia tried as early as 1995 to prevent the sale and to establish a nostalgia business on Lake Wörthersee, but failed because of the politicians responsible. The luck on the Danube was not good for the two ships; the Lorelei collided with a concrete wall on one of the first trips, which caused severe damage in the bow area, while the Loretto ran onto a sandbank during a boozy trip near the town of Fischamend and was a special attraction for a few weeks in the low water Danube The river police finally ordered the ship to be taken ashore, as they feared that the ship would drift rudderlessly downstream during floods. In the years that followed, Loretto and Lorelei became unusual accommodations for the homeless, which further damaged the substance of the ships.

Return and nostalgia business

Up until 1999, all attempts by the nostalgic railways in Carinthia to bring the two ships back to Carinthia had failed. Then the mood changed and it was possible to purchase the Loretto first with the help of a fundraising campaign . The transport on a low-loader on the southern motorway was a particular challenge for the volunteers involved. The Loretto was made operational again in the Klagenfurt shipyard in many unpaid hours of work by the volunteer members of the shipping section. It also turned out that the operation of a ship on a Carinthian lake was not so easily possible; a separate company (operating company) had to be founded, and a large number of legal requirements had to be met.

The first two seasons of nostalgic shipping were a success, so that the association set about bringing the Lorelei back to Carinthia. Because of the great damage the ship had suffered in the collision, repairs in the shipyard were out of the question; the Lorelei came into the workshop of nostalgia railways to Ferlach. Since the ship had been seriously rebuilt for operation on the Lend Canal and the Loretto represented the modernized version of the two ships, it was decided to rebuild according to the original construction plans from 1924. After the general overhaul, the ship was brought from Ferlach to Lake Wörthersee on a low-loader .

The success of nostalgic shipping meant that some members were trained to become skippers and sailors in order to be able to cope with the journeys that occurred without external personnel. Because of their size, the ships are particularly suitable for small events .

Future projects

Another historic ship is waiting to be refurbished at the nostalgic railroad storage area in Ferlach. The motor ship Hermann , which was anchored for decades as Angelique at the Weißen Rössel in the community of Schiefling , is to be refurbished in the medium term and as the third ship to strengthen the nostalgic shipping.

Due to the sale of the former city-owned shipping company to a private person, the future of the historic ships in the shipyard in Klagenfurt See is also uncertain. One of the two nostalgic ships has to be parked outside of the shipyard, as the operator has announced that it is needed for its own use. The next important goal of nostalgic shipping is therefore the construction and commissioning of its own parking bridge outside the shipyard.

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