City of Frankfurt (ship)

**City of Frankfurt** p1
Ship data
flag	Frankfurt am Main
Ship type	Smooth deck steamer
Shipping company	Steamship company for the Rhine and Main
Shipyard	NSM shipyard, Nieuw-Lekkerland
Order	1826
Launch	1827
Commissioning	March 8, 1828
Whereabouts	Wrecked in 1840
Ship dimensions and crew
length	28.5 m ( Lüa )
width	5.7 m
Draft	Max. 0.48 m
measurement	50 tons
crew	10
Machine system
machine	1-cylinder steam engine
Machine ; performance	52 hp (38 kW)

The city of Frankfurt was the first steamship on the Main .

After the Concordia, it was the second paddle steamer of the steamship company of the Rhine and Main and, with its shallow draft, was specially built for traffic on the Lower Main between Mainz and Frankfurt am Main . However, traffic on this route was stopped again in 1832 due to various technical problems and lack of profitability. The Preussisch-Rheinische Dampfschiffahrtsgesellschaft in Cologne took over the ship and, after a successful conversion, used it on the Upper Rhine . On July 28, 1832, it was the first steamship to reach the port of Basel . The ship was scrapped in 1840.

history

After the first successes of the Nederlandsche Stoomboot Maatschappij , which had been sailing the Rhine with the steamship De Zeeuw since 1824 , the Frankfurt bankers Simon Moritz von Bethmann and Alexander du Fay tried to introduce steamship on the Main as well. For the Free City of Frankfurt trade with southern Germany and Alsace, but also with Great Britain, was vital. Together with business people from Mainz and Strasbourg , they founded a company in the autumn of 1825, which merged with a Baden company in 1826 to form the steamship company of the Rhine and Main , based in Mainz. Along with Johann Friedrich von Cotta , Jean-Georges Humann , Johann Maria Kertell and Johann Heinrich Mappes, Bethmann was one of the company's first directors. The share capital was one million guilders , of which the Frankfurt banking houses Gebr. Bethmann and J. Noë du Fay subscribed 20 percent on behalf of Frankfurt shareholders.

In September 1825, the steamer De Rijn undertook an extremely successful test run on the Rhine from Cologne upstream to Kehl and Strasbourg on behalf of the new company. His builder Gerhard Moritz Roentgen was therefore supposed to build the ship intended for the Main. On August 31, 1826, the Senate of the Free City of Frankfurt granted a six-year concession for a steamship to be named City of Frankfurt . The ship was given a suitable berth on Mainkai reserved. Bethmann and du Fay also acquired the monopoly for the daily Mainz market ship for the steamship company from November 1, 1827 .

On May 1, 1827, the Concordia began regular service on the Rhine between Cologne and Mainz. On July 1, 1827, a second steamer, the Friedrich Wilhelm, was added, which sailed under the flag of the Prussian-Rhenish Steamship Company (PRDG). Both ships were too big to navigate the Rhine above Mainz or the Main. The delivery of the city of Frankfurt , planned for autumn 1827, was delayed because the shipyard had difficulties ensuring a shallow draft , which was made necessary by the increasing silting up of the mouth of the Main and the often poor water flow of the Main. The ship did not arrive in Mainz until the spring of 1828. It reached its home port of Frankfurt for the first time on March 8, 1828 at 6 p.m.

After just a few days, damage to the steam boiler and the steam engine occurred. The ship also did not perform as expected. Even with favorable flow conditions and with the help of the sail, it only reached a low speed. Operations had to be stopped for a year in order to rebuild the city of Frankfurt at the Jacobi, Haniel & Huyssen shipyard in Ruhrort . From July to September 1829 the ship operated again on the Main, until renewed engine damage forced the demolition. The city of Frankfurt was only able to resume operations on May 27, 1830 after installing a more powerful steam boiler. At last the ship was found to be operational.

The economic success failed to materialize, however, as the city of Frankfurt was mainly set up for passenger traffic. The short journey from Frankfurt to Mainz did not save time compared to the stagecoach, so that many travelers continued to prefer the land route to Mainz and only boarded a ship there for the journey to the Lower Rhine . Freight traffic, however, remained insignificant. In 1828 the city of Frankfurt transported a total of 601 quintals , and in 1829 7491 quintals. Also in 1830 and 1831 there was no regular scheduled service, especially since the steamer Ludwig , which was intended for traffic on the Upper Rhine , turned out to be unusable and the city of Frankfurt also operated the route between Mainz and Schröck near Karlsruhe , the end point of the regular service on the Upper Rhine at that time would have.

Since the steamship company of Rhine and Main made no profits and could not pay a dividend, it merged in January 1832 with the PRDG in Cologne, which also took over the two ships and all other assets in exchange for 120,000 thalers in shares. The Ludwig was sold, but the city of Frankfurt remained indispensable. In the spring of 1832, the low water on the Middle Rhine between Cologne and Mainz made problems for the large Cologne steamers, so that the shallow city of Frankfurt between Kaub and Mainz had to help out. The unprofitable traffic from Mainz to Frankfurt was discontinued, especially since the Prussian company no longer received a license for the Main traffic from the Free City of Frankfurt. At the beginning of June 1832, the water conditions made it possible for the larger ships to return to regular regular service between Cologne and Mainz, so that the city of Frankfurt could be used on the Upper Rhine between Mainz and Mannheim .

The PRDG has now equipped the ship for a test voyage on the entire Upper Rhine stretch to Basel. Gerhard Moritz Roentgen was in charge of the expedition . In addition to the business people involved in the company, there were also members of the Central Commission for Navigation on the Rhine on board . On July 22, 1832, the ship cast off in Kehl and went upstream in the direction of Breisach , which was reached on July 26. The onward journey towards Basel was only successful because the ship was pulled over the Istein thresholds by 16 people with the help of strong chains . On July 28, 1832 at 12 noon, the city of Frankfurt was the first steamship to arrive in Basel.

The ship remained in operation for the PRDG for a few years. In 1834 the Ruhrort shipyard received a new, low-pressure composite steam engine designed by Roentgen , which developed an output of 28 horsepower at 50 revolutions per minute . In 1840 the city of Frankfurt was scrapped.

Steam ship traffic on the Main was not resumed until 1841, after the Free City of Frankfurt joined the German Customs Union and the Taunus Railway from Frankfurt to Wiesbaden was built.

literature

Hans-Otto Schembs , The first steamer on the Main , from: Hessischer Rundfunk Schulfunk. History. Year 35, September 1980 to January 1981, pp. 45–48.
Georg Fischbach: The ships of the Cologne-Düsseldorfer 1826-2004 . Self-published, Marienhausen 2004, ISBN 3-00-016046-9 .

Web links

The first steamship in Neuenburg am Rhein on its way to Basel

Individual evidence

^ Christian Eckert: Rhine shipping in the XIX. Century . In: Gustav Schmoller (Ed.): Political and social science research . tape 18 , no. 5 . Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1900, p. 207 ( digitized version ).
^ Christian Eckert: Rhine shipping in the XIX. Century . In: Gustav Schmoller (Ed.): Political and social science research . tape 18 , no. 5 . Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1900, p. 210 ( digitized version ).
↑ ^a ^b Otto Dresemann: From the youth of the Rhine steamship . Kölner Verlagsanstalt und Druckerei, Cologne 1903, p. 74 ( digital copy [PDF]).
↑ Otto Dresemann: From the youth of the Rhine steamship . Kölner Verlagsanstalt und Druckerei, Cologne 1903, p. 76 f . ( Digital copy [PDF]).
^ Arnold Woltmann, Friedrich Frölich: The Gutehoffnungshütte Oberhausen . In memory of the 100th anniversary from 1810–1910. Bagel, Düsseldorf 1910, p. 44 f . ( Digitized version ).
^ Georg Schanz: The Main Shipping in the XIX. Century and their future development . CC Buchner, Bamberg 1894, p. 179 ( digitized version ).

[1] Christian Eckert: Rhine shipping in the XIX. Century . In: Gustav Schmoller (Ed.): Political and social science research . tape 18 , no. 5 . Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1900, p. 207 ( digitized version ).

[2] Christian Eckert: Rhine shipping in the XIX. Century . In: Gustav Schmoller (Ed.): Political and social science research . tape 18 , no. 5 . Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1900, p. 210 ( digitized version ).

[Dresemann-3] Otto Dresemann: From the youth of the Rhine steamship . Kölner Verlagsanstalt und Druckerei, Cologne 1903, p. 74 ( digital copy [PDF]).

[4] Otto Dresemann: From the youth of the Rhine steamship . Kölner Verlagsanstalt und Druckerei, Cologne 1903, p. 76 f . ( Digital copy [PDF]).

[5] Arnold Woltmann, Friedrich Frölich: The Gutehoffnungshütte Oberhausen . In memory of the 100th anniversary from 1810–1910. Bagel, Düsseldorf 1910, p. 44 f . ( Digitized version ).

[6] Georg Schanz: The Main Shipping in the XIX. Century and their future development . CC Buchner, Bamberg 1894, p. 179 ( digitized version ).