Screw steamer on Lake Constance
Out of 74 steamships on Lake Constance , only five were propeller-driven , as the propeller is correctly called. These two passenger ships and two steam tugs were not put into service by the shipping authorities until 1885. The fifth screw steamer was the floating aerology station used by meteorologists . Since 1999, two steam boats with approval as a passenger ship have been added. The small screw steamers are used in local excursion traffic and, apart from a few private yachts, are currently the only screw steamers on Lake Constance .
history
According to the patents of James Watt , it was only a small step to ships with steam engines , because the role models for the drive had long been in operation: the water wheel for the paddle wheel and the windmill the windmill for the propellers . John Fitch realized both types of drive in 1786/87, long before the more successful Fulton and Smith . The paddle wheel was more successful until the middle of the 19th century. After that, the efficiency of the propeller was so mature that hardly any ocean-going ships with wheel drive had been built since 1870 .
It is different on Lake Constance: here the side-wheel drive has been used since the first functioning steamboat . Apart from the five screw steamers and a few motor boats , the success of the propeller did not begin here until the mid-1920s with the construction of five motor ships and, with the exception of the Swiss ships, ended in 1930 because the Voith-Schneider drive then prevailed. The narrow harbor basins on Lake Constance and the low water levels, which fluctuate by around 1.60 meters seasonally, were unfavorable for the screw drive. The propeller of a saloon steamer had late 19th century must have two feet in diameter, d. H. 2.40 meters draft. Therefore, the screw steamers were only smaller ships of local importance here.
Ships
Bregenz , from 1910 Vorarlberg
The Bregenz , called “Propeller”, was the first screw steamer on Lake Constance. It was used in 1885 as a trajectory tug between the home port of Bregenz and Romanshorn , Friedrichshafen and Konstanz and, thanks to the 250 hp engine and the three-winged so-called Admiralty screw (diameter 1.58 meters, incline 2.40 meters, 130 / min) could two barges with each hauling eight wagons. In order to reduce the aft draft when towing , a cell floodable with 7.5 m³ of water was installed in the forecastle. Nevertheless, the ship got stuck in the silt when it was launched on April 1, 1885 and was only released on June 3. When the saloon steamship Stadt Bregenz was put into service in 1910, the name was changed to Vorarlberg . After the ferry service was discontinued in 1917, it was used as a service boat until 1922 before it was sold as a tugboat to Regensburg on the Danube .
| Data: | ||
|---|---|---|
| Year of construction: 1885 | Length: 24.38 m | Engine power: 250 hp |
| Shipyard: Shipyard Linz / Danube | Width: 5.48 m | Speed empty: 16.6 km / h |
| Owner: kk Österr. State Railways | Draft: 1.82 m / 2.28 m | Capacity: 2 barges |
| Home port: Bregenz | Tonnage: 93 to | Whereabouts: from 1922 Regensburg; Demolished in 1930 |
Caroline , from 1903 Karoline , from 1910 City of Radolfzell
Deppert treats the Caroline or Karoline on the one hand and the town of Radolfzell on the other hand as different ships that have been built by different shipyards. Bönke, Fritz, Liechti and v. Rudloff assume a single ship.
Rhine
The Rhein was the only steamship on Lake Constance with a twin screw drive (each with three blades and 95 cm in diameter). It was built in 1891 by Sulzer in Winterthur for the Swiss Steamboat Company for the Untersee and Rhine and was mainly used in the Höri service between the German and Swiss locations on the Untersee . Since the half-saloon steamship could only carry 90 people, the Schaffhausen Society bought the tugboat Schwan in 1894 and had it converted as a passenger trailer for the Rhine . Even during the test run on the Rhine , defects prevented the owner from accepting it. Later, too, the machine in particular was very susceptible to repairs, which is why the Rhine was retired in 1899 and sold to Lake Neuchâtel and Lake Murten. There she drove under the name Morat until 1921 .
| Data: | ||
|---|---|---|
| Year of construction: 1891 | Length: 25 m | Engine power: 2 x 50 hp |
| Shipyard: Sulzer Brothers, Winterthur | Width: 3.60 m | Speed empty: 16.5 km / h |
| Commissioning: 1891 | Draft: 1.35 m | Capacity: 90 passengers |
| Home port: Schaffhausen | Tonnage: 32.7 to | Location: from 1900 Lake Neuchâtel |
Buchhorn
After the free imperial city Buchhorn (1811: Friedrichshafen ) named barge Buchhorn was built for the Royal Württemberg State Railways in 1891 by the Saxon shipyard Dresden and placed in Friedrichshafen in ferry traffic in service. But because it was much smaller than the Bregenz (see above), it could only drag a boat slowly - if the weather was good. The 90-horsepower machine and the propeller with a diameter of 1.25 meters did not allow more. But since it had a draft of only 1.17 meters when empty, it was well suited for the Zeppelin towing service from 1900 to 1909 . Their task was to pull the zeppelin in or out of the huge floating airship hangar anchored in front of Manzell . The airship rested on a raft 116 meters long and 12 meters wide. With this raft, the Buchhorn rushed to the aid of the airship Zeppelin 1 on July 2, 1900 , when the 128-meter-long airship had to emerge from Immenstaad 18 minutes after taking off for its first voyage . LZ 1 had an accident with a sea mark when attempting to tow the support boat Württemberg . The Buchhorn was approved for the transport of 30 passengers, presumably on "pleasure trips". In 1909, like several other ships before her, she was rammed by the “Devil's Ship” Zurich , formerly the city of Zurich . After it was taken over by the Reichsbahn in 1920, it was canceled in 1928.
| Data: | ||
|---|---|---|
| Year of construction: 1891 | Length: 16.5 m | Engine power: 90 hp |
| Shipyard: Dresden shipyard | Width: 3.2 m | Speed empty: 17 km / h |
| Commissioning: 1891 | Draft: 1.17 m | Capacity: 30 passengers |
| Home port: Friedrichshafen | Tonnage: | Whereabouts: canceled in 1928 |
Gna
The Gna was a fast screw steamer built in 1907, which was used on Lake Constance as a research ship to obtain meteorological data.
Gustav Prym
The Gustav Prym was built as a motorboat in 1916 and used from the home port of Konstanz as a passenger ship until 1963 and as a fireboat from 1966 to 1985 . After the installation of a steam engine, built in 1906, the steamboat has been used from Bodman in charter and excursion traffic since 1999 . The historic screw steamer is over a hundred years old.
Felicitas
The Felicitas is a small screw steamer that has been approved as a passenger ship for 14 people since 2000 and is used in charter and excursion traffic from Wasserburg . The steam boat was built in 1991 by the boat builder Helmut Biatel in Hard (Austria) according to the original plans of an English “steam lounch” from around 1890. The mahogany hull is 10.75 m long, 2.52 m wide and completely covered with a wheelhouse and saloon. Like the wood-fired boiler, the single-cylinder hot steam piston machine was built in Austria in 1991 and has an output of 12.8 hp (9.4 kW) at 320 rpm. With a 3-blade fixed propeller the boat reaches 13.3 km / h (7.2 kn). The steamboat received the "A" certificate from the American Bureau of Shipping and is technically and visually a gem
| Data: | ||
|---|---|---|
| Year of construction: 1991 | Length: 10.75 m | Engine power: 12.8 hp |
| Shipyard: H. Biatel, Hard | Width: 2.52 m | Speed empty: 13.3 km / h |
| Owner: Felizitas Schmid | Draft: 0.55 m | Capacity: 14 passengers |
| Home port: Wasserburg | Tonnage: 5.0 to | Use: charter and tours |
See also
- List of ground sea steamships
- Steam boat trip on Lake Constance
- Lake Constance Trajectories
- Passenger motor boats of the Deutsche Reichsbahn on Lake Constance
literature
- Manfred Bauer: Airship hangars in Friedrichshafen . In: Wolfgang Meighörner (Hrsg.): Writings on the history of the Zeppelin airship. No. 2, second expanded edition. Zeppelin Museum Friedrichshafen, Friedrichshafen 2001, ISBN 3-86136-069-1 .
- Dietmar Bönke: paddle wheel and impeller. The history of the railroad on Lake Constance. GeraMond Verlag, Munich 2013, ISBN 978-3-86245-714-4 .
- Karl F. Fritz: Adventure steamboat trip on Lake Constance . Multi Media Verlag, Meersburg 1990, ISBN 3-927484-00-8 .
- Werner Deppert: With a steam engine and a paddle wheel. The steamship on Lake Constance 1817-1967. Verlag Friedr. Stadler, Konstanz 1975, ISBN 3-7977-0015-6 .
- Erich Liechti, Jörg Meister, Josef Gwerder: The history of shipping on Lake Constance, Untersee and the Rhine. Meier Verlag, Schaffhausen 1981, ISBN 3-85801-020-0 .
- Fritz Maier: Friedrichshafen. Homeland book. Volume 2: The history of the city from the beginning of the 20th century to the end of the Second World War. Verlag Robert Gessler, Friedrichshafen 1994, ISBN 3-922137-46-6 .
- Klaus von Rudloff, Claude Jeanmaire: Shipping on Lake Constance. Volume 2: The heyday of steam shipping. Verlag Eisenbahn, Villigen (CH) 1981, ISBN 3-85649-071-X .
Web links
- Bregenz on bodenseeschifffahrt.de
- Caroline on bodenseeschifffahrt.de
- Rhine on bodenseeschifffahrt.de
- Buchhorn on bodenseeschifffahrt.de
Notes and individual references
- ^ According to Deppert (see literature), p. 54.
- ↑ The paddle steamers of that time, like the modern motor ships, only had a draft of around 1.70 meters.
- ↑ Sources and Fig .: See literature Bönke, p. 138 u. 292; Deppert, pp. 54f, 142 u. 159.
- ↑ Deppert, (see literature), pp. 54, 142 and 159.
- ^ Sources and illustrations: See Bönke (literature), p. 218; Fritz (literature), pp. 67-71; Liechti (literature), pp. 143-146; v. Rudloff (literature), pp. 23 and 71.
- ↑ Friedrich Pernwerth of Bärnstein: The steamship on Lake Constance and its historical development in cooperation with the railways during her second major period (1847-1900) . Deichert, Leipzig 1906, p. 148 ( digitized version )
- ↑ Sources and illustrations in Bönke (see literature), p. 324; Deppert (see literature), p. 158; Liechti (see literature), pp. 132-135.
- ^ Bauer (see literature), pp. 18 and 30; Bönke (see literature), pp. 178 and 180; Deppert (see literature), pp. 56 and 138.
- ↑ Maier (see literature), p. 26.
- ↑ Fritz (see literature), p. 34.
- ↑ FASCINATION OF STEAM • DeutscherDampfbootVerein e. V. (No longer available online.) In: dampfboot.de. February 15, 2015, archived from the original on February 20, 2015 ; accessed on February 20, 2015 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
