Aluminia (ship, 1894)
 Draft by the Aluminia
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The Aluminia , built in 1894 according to plans by Prince Wilhelm zu Wied , was the "Aluminum-Naphtha-Yawl-Kreuzer-Jacht" and was one of the first German sailing yachts to be made largely of aluminum .
Prince Wilhelm zu Wied (* August 22, 1845; † October 22, 1907) was always enthusiastic about technology and very interested in shipping . So in 1894 he decided to have an aluminum yacht built. He chose the Swiss engineering company Escher, Wyss & Cie. who had enough shipbuilding experience. The designer was the engineer W. Reitz.
construction
The yacht had a length of around 12 meters between the perpendiculars, 10.75 meters of waterline and a width of 2.85 meters. The hull was divided into five watertight compartments. The draft of the long keel was 1 meter and the weight 12.3 tons, its speed six to seven knots. The purchase price was 50,455 Swiss Francs and included the transfer of the ship by rail to Genoa.
The Aluminia was rigged with two masts as a yawl and had a naphtha auxiliary engine with 6 hp. Since the yacht was later to be transferred to the Italian Riviera , to Santa Margherita near Genoa , the masts were constructed in such a way that they could be easily turned down. Aluminum was used as much as possible, even for the furniture. Besides the propeller shaft, only the motor was made of iron, but it was clad in aluminum. The propeller was made of aluminum bronze, the tank was riveted from 4 mm thick aluminum sheet. The fuel supply was sufficient for a distance of 600 kilometers. The keel was weighted with lead.
Inside, the aluminia was built with mahogany and yellow pine, and there was also a small kitchen, washroom and toilet. The outer deck parts were made of Indian oak. The two tenders for four people each, also made of light metal, weighed only 50 kilograms each.
After the test drives on Lake Zurich, the trade press was full of praise for the successful construction, although it was not easy to build a boat that had equally good handling characteristics both under sail and with a motor.
history
Immediately after completion in 1894, Wilhelm Fürst zu Wied had the yacht transported by train to its home port of Santa Margherita. Twelve years later, Lake Constance was her new territory. Friedrich zu Wied , the son of the prince, was married to Pauline von Württemberg , daughter of the Württemberg king Wilhelm II. He owned a summer residence with two yachts in the castle harbor in Friedrichshafen on Lake Constance . After an overhaul at Escher & Wyss, Aluminia was added in 1906 . The yacht was registered in Kiel from 1896 to 1908 , King Wilhelm II was her owner from 1905 until it was sold in 1911. Its whereabouts are uncertain.
Escher Wyss' first aluminum boat was the Zephyr , built in 1891. She was 5.50 m long, 1.30 m wide and had a draft of 0.50 m. It was equipped with a 2 hp naphtha engine and its weight was 440 kg. The second boat, the Mignon , was built for Alfred Nobel in 1892 . Only in 1936 were seagoing yachts made of aluminum again.
In 1960 the first inland waterway vessel made of aluminum, a tanker for the Lehnkering Reederei, was built in Rheinbrohl by the Hilgers shipyard. This ship was also called the Aluminia . It was stationed as a bunker boat in Koblenz . However, aluminum did not establish itself as a building material in inland shipping.
literature
- Julius Strüder and Rolf Strüder (eds.): Pictures and figures from the past of the city of Neuwied. For the 300th anniversary 1653–1953. , Neuwied 1953
- Princely Wiedisches Archiv, Neuwied, 112-12-6
Web link
- History of Aluminia (PDF; 292 kB) - Friends of Classic Yachts