Svea (ship, 1877)
The Svea was a side paddle steamer that operated as Prinses Elisabeth between the Netherlands and England from 1878 to 1898 , then as the mail steamer Svea until 1907 on the forerunner line of the so-called royal line Trelleborg - Sassnitz between Sweden and Germany.
Construction and technical data
The ship, with two chimneys and two masts, was launched on October 12, 1877 at John Elder & Co. in Govan , Glasgow (Scotland), with the hull number 215 from the stack and was in the same year with the name Prinses Elisabeth to the 1875 founded Stoomvaart Maatschappij "Zeeland" in Vlissingen in the Dutch province of Zeeland . It was 84.75 m long and 10.70 m wide; the total width of the wheelhouse above the wheel arches was 21 m. The ship was measured with 1545 GRT and 810 NRT . Two two-cylinder compound steam engines from John Elder & Co., with four boilers and twelve fireplaces, gave a top speed of about 16 knots .
history
The Prinses Elisabeth and her sister ship Prinses Marie were used in passenger and freight traffic on the line from Vlissingen to Queenborough on the south bank of the estuary of the Thames . There they replaced the shipping company's three original side paddle steamers, Stad Middelburg , Stad Vlissingen and Stad Breda . Competitive pressure from the ferry line Harwich-Rotterdam the Great Eastern Railway introduced the shipping company in 1895 three larger, more modern, faster and more comfortable Seitenraddampfer into service, Queen Regent , Queen Wilhelmina (1) and Prins Hendrick (2), and both the Prinses Elisabeth and the Prinses Marie were only kept ready as reserve ships. From April 13, 1896, the two ships were chartered for 18 months to Albert Ballin , who renamed them Princess Elisabeth and Princess Marie and used them in the liner service from the Elbe to Heligoland .
On December 14, 1898, the ship was sold to the shipping company A / B Sverige-Kontinenten of the two half-brothers Gustaf Oscar Wallenberg and Knut Agathon Wallenberg in Stockholm , who renamed it Svea and in 1899 took it into service on the Trelleborg-Sassnitz mail steamer line , where since this year two daily departures from Sassnitz and Trelleborg had become necessary. The sister ship Prinses Marie was sold at the same time to the Stettiner Dampfschiffs-Gesellschaft JF Braeunlich , renamed Germania and also used on the Trelleborg - Sassnitz route, which was operated jointly by the two shipping companies. Both now each had a side wheel steamer and a screw steamer on the route. The Svea was Sweden's largest passenger ship at the time and, according to contemporary information, was elegantly furnished with a very beautiful dining room, a large royal saloon and very comfortable first and second class cabins.
On December 13, 1900, the ship went off course on the voyage from Sassnitz to Trelleborg and ran aground near Stavsten, about 4 nautical miles west-southwest of the port entrance of Trelleborg. It sustained considerable damage to the ship's bottom and had to be towed to the Burmeister & Wain shipyard in Copenhagen for repairs on February 10, 1901 . The Svea only came back into service in autumn 1901 .
When the Svea was to be taken out of service in 1907 due to lengthy repairs, the Swedish Post Office canceled its contract with the Wallenberg shipping company and instead signed the Sverige-Tyskland shipping company from Malmö , the one with two steamers, the Prinsessan Margareta and the Prins Gustaf Adolf , got on the mail steamer line. The Svea was then in Malmo launched . In 1909 it was sold to unknown buyers in Copenhagen and then sold in 1910 to be demolished in Stettin .
Notes and individual references
- ↑ http://www.simplonpc.co.uk/SMZ1.html#anchor97627
- ↑ http://www.simplonpc.co.uk/SMZ1.html#anchor75455
- ↑ In this regard, there is no agreement among the sources as to whether both ships or only one (and then which) was chartered by Ballin; see e.g. B. http://www.simplonpc.co.uk/SMZ1.html#anchor97627
- ↑ Brownish the Imperator , Sverige continents the Rex and after their stranding from 1900 the Nordstjernan .
- ↑ Captain Ericsson reports on his experiences on and with the mail steamers
- ↑ Statens Järnvägar Färjerederiet (Swedish)