City of Rapperswil (ship)
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The city of Rapperswil is the younger of the two paddle steamers operated by the Zürichsee-Schiffahrtsgesellschaft (ZSG). On Lake Zurich , it operates from April to November on the Zurich – Rapperswil (SG) –Zurich route.
It and its sister ship Stadt Zürich (1909) differ from most other Swiss paddle steamers in that they have a short chimney and a generously proportioned upper deck for 1st class. Apart from the details, the two ships are easy to confuse: The town of Rapperswil can be recognized by the front cross mast and the different color of the sun deck. In the first class saloon, she is also more luxuriously equipped than her sister ship, recognizable by the mahogany and pear tree paneling and the artistically crafted stairs to the upper deck.
history
The town of Rapperswil was built in 1914 by Escher, Wyss & Cie. in Zurich . The construction costs for the ship amounted to 360,072.44 Swiss Francs . The launch on March 16, 1914 was not without problems: the ship had to be stopped after five meters because the navigation bridge threatened to collide with the roof beam of the shipyard. The load trip with 1,500 sandbags - instead of 1,000 passengers - went without a hitch, and so the maiden voyage took place on May 29, 1914 with five ladies of honor on board. A journey from Zurich to Rapperswil then cost CHF 3.50 in 1st class, today CHF 41.40 (as of May 2014) for the so-called Grand Tour from Zurich and Rapperswil and back.
Together with the city of Zurich and Helvetia, built in 1875, the then Zurich Steamboat Company (ZDG) now owned three large ships as the backbone of its fleet. Only a few months later, with the beginning of World War I, ship operations were massively reduced. On December 2, 1918, the Federal Council ordered the suspension of all steam-powered shipping routes because not enough coal could be imported into Switzerland; As early as 1919, the restrictions were forgotten again. During the Second World War, the steam boiler remained filled with water all winter and the engine room was heated in order to keep the temperature above freezing point and the paddle steamer for military purposes within 24 hours. During this time, private shipping almost completely came to a standstill. In 1951 coal firing was replaced by heavy oil firing . From 1959, the last two paddle steamers on Lake Zurich were gradually supplemented by modern motor ships and were practically only used on Sundays - only from 1986 did the two saloon steamers operate more frequently in the summer season and since 2004 ( City of Zurich ) and 2006 ( City of Rapperswil ) almost daily during the summer season.
In autumn 1969, the first rumors reached the public that the Zürichsee-Schifffahrtsgesellschaft (ZSG) was planning to decommission the city of Rapperswil . An action committee campaigned for the preservation of the technical cultural asset, which was considered valuable, and sought talks with the director of the Zurich transport company as well as the operations manager of the ZSG and their shipyard manager. The city of Rapperswil was to be taken out of service without replacement at the beginning of 1970 because it was in poor technical condition. In addition, the operator asserted that the personnel requirement with eight men is twice as high as for a diesel motor ship of the same capacity and that there are hardly any qualified employees to be found for the hot engine room. Renewing the paddle steamer would have cost around two million Swiss francs. The board of directors of ZSG followed the management's request to take the paddle steamer out of service, and the decision was communicated to the press on January 13, 1970. The action committee reacted to this announcement by founding the association “Aktion pro Raddampfer”, whose statutes contain “the maintenance of the two steamers in good condition” and “their frequent use”. The association was committed to the Federal Office of Transport , the operator and the public for the preservation of the city of Rapperswil and its sister ship. With the support of the press, the breakthrough came on August 31, 1970 on the occasion of an information trip for members of the authorities and media representatives on Lake Geneva: The Compagnie générale de navigation sur le Lac Léman (CGN) in Ouchy was able to convincingly demonstrate how its paddle steamers from the Belle Époque were comparatively inexpensive had been renewed and are also economically competitive. Two years later, 200,000 Swiss francs secured urgent renovations for the city of Zurich , and in 1976 a “steamship festival” and donations made it possible to improve the standard of both steamers.
Picture gallery
Rear view: City of Zurich (left) and City of Rapperswil in the Wollishofen shipyard
Ship engine
Second class saloon
Front trim
Outdoor booth with joystick to steer the ship, the wooden steering wheel usually serves as a replacement
Rose coat of arms on the stairs between the main and upper deck
stairway
Total renewal
In 1977 and again in 1983 the board of directors of the ZSG decided to maintain its two last steamships for the long term. In 1985, the ZSG celebrated “150 years of steam navigation on Lake Zurich” with various activities. In the winter of 1989/90, the city of Rapperswil's two old steam boilers were replaced by a new one, the technical installations and the wooden deck were renovated, as was the wooden stairs to 1st class. At the end of 2001, the ZSG board of directors initiated the project “Full steam ahead” with the aim of renewing the two Zürchseeradd steamers and equipping them with increased comfort. On the “Swiss Shipping Day” in 2002, a fundraising campaign started, again in cooperation with the “Aktion pro Paddle Steamer”. From 2003 to 2006 the city of Rapperswil and the city of Zurich were renewed with the help of the preservation authorities. Both received fuel-saving boilers, new technical installations and electro-hydraulic controls to reduce the crew. The general overhaul of the city of Rapperswil , which had been prepared for a long time, began at the end of November 2005 and lasted six months; on May 30, 2006 the ceremonial restart took place. In addition to the technical innovations, the ride comfort for the passengers was increased and work was made easier for the crew. The catering was completely renovated, a larger kitchen was installed, and a goods lift from the kitchen via the main deck to the upper deck helped the staff to make working conditions easier. The furniture in the first class has also been renovated. The staff of the Zürichsee-Schifffahrtsgesellschaft contributed 12318 working hours; the effective costs were 2.05 million Swiss francs (around 4.2 million for both steamers). Over 2000 patrons donated a total of 2,594,035 Swiss francs.
Before the conversion to heavy fuel oil, 14 men were on duty with machinists, stokers and sub-machinists; Currently, the operation of the paddle steamer still requires a crew of 6 people. This is due, among other things, to the automated drive technology, so the massive wooden steering wheel in the wheelhouse is only used as an ornament today: the captain maneuvers the ship with a joystick.
100 years of the steamship city of Rapperswil
From April 23 to 25, 2009, the city of Zurich , the longest-serving passenger ship on Lake Zurich, celebrated its service anniversary at Bürkliplatz in Zurich. On June 12, 2009, exactly one hundred years after her maiden voyage, she was accompanied by her sister ship on a three-hour tour with invited guests. On the occasion of the anniversary of the city of Zurich, the operator was already very confident that the city of Rapperswil would also reach its hundredth year of operation. This was celebrated with a three-day anniversary program and a day of the open steamboat doors in Zurich, a steamer dinner as well as a rally and subsequent harbor festival at the fish market square in Rapperswil as the end of the anniversary celebrations at the end of May 2014.
incident
On the evening of July 17, 2015, the city of Rapperswil was pressed by gusts of wind onto a sandbank between the Rapperswil lake dam and the island of Lützelau . A paddle wheel was so badly damaged that the ship had to be towed from the Panta Rhei to the Zurich-Wollishofen shipyard after the passengers had been evacuated .
literature
- Aktion Pro Paddle Steamer, Zurich: Paddle Steamer City of Rapperswil: 1914-2014 . Verlag Dampferzeitung, Lucerne 2014, ISBN 978-3-03304479-1 .
- Kurt Hunziker, Robert Knöpfel (Hrsg.): The Zürichsee-Schifffahrt . History and stories from 1835 to today. Verlag Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Zurich 2014, ISBN 978-3-03823-865-2 , p. 131-136 .
Web links
- Steam ships on the website of the Lake Zurich Shipping Company
- Website «Action per paddle steamer»
- Historical photographs
Footnotes
- ^ A b Benno Gasser: Steamship on a big anniversary voyage . Day indicator . April 22, 2014. Retrieved May 28, 2014.
- ↑ a b c Information boards at the anniversary exhibition from April 23 to 25, 2009 on board the City of Zurich
- ↑ a b c Website Dampfromantik-Nostalgie , accessed on May 4, 2009
- ↑ a b Website Dampferrettung ( Memento of the original from May 27, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) 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. , accessed May 12, 2014
- ↑ The oldest competitor of the Panta Rhei . Day indicator. April 19, 2009. Retrieved May 28, 2014.
- ↑ Steamship Anniversary Website: Program ( Memento of the original from April 21, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) 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. , accessed May 4, 2009
- ↑ ZSG anniversary events , accessed on February 20, 2014
- ↑ http://www.tagesanzeiger.ch/zuerich/sturm-triebe-raddampfer-auf-sandbank-schaufelrad-gebelte/story/14986541
