Victoria Cruziana (ship)

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Victoria Cruziana
Victoria Cruziana (2007)
Victoria Cruziana (2007)
Ship data
flag NetherlandsNetherlands Netherlands
other ship names
  • Europe (1960–1998)
Ship type River cruise ship
home port Rotterdam
Owner MS Victoria Cruziana BV
Shipyard Shipyard
Christof Ruthof
Launch April 9, 1960
takeover May 29, 1960
Whereabouts Hotel ship in Belgrade
Ship dimensions and crew
length
88.48 m ( Lüa )
width 11.56 m
Draft Max. 1.52 m
displacement 707  t
Machine system
machine 4 × Deutz diesel engines, each 312 kW
Machine
performanceTemplate: Infobox ship / maintenance / service format 		1,248 kW (1,697 hp)
propeller 2 × Voith-Schneider drive
1 × bow thruster
Transport capacities
Permitted number of passengers 116
Others
Registration
numbers 		* Europe no .: 4401140 (until 1998)

The Victoria Cruziana was built in 1959/60 and was the first river cruise ship of the Rhine shipping . It was decommissioned in 2008 and put up for sale. The ship was in service from 1960 to 1995 under the name Europa for the Cologne-Düsseldorfer . Her last shipping company, MS Victoria Cruziana BV from 's-Gravendeel , used her on 8-day cruises between Cologne and Basel . After a prospective buyer was found in 2010, she was to be transferred to her future location in Belgrade . For unknown reasons, the trip was canceled in Passau-Heining in August . The ship was anchored and was due to be foreclosed on November 19, 2010 due to unpaid mooring fees. On the morning of the auction day, a water ingress was detected, as a result of which the ship sank. After the salvage, the shipwreck was towed to Belgrade.

history

Planning and construction

After the operating group Kölnische and Düsseldorfer Gesellschaft für Rhein-Dampfschiffahrt, consisting of the two independent Rhine shipping companies, Dampfschifffahrts-Gesellschaft für die Nieder- und Mittelrhein and Preußisch-Rheinische Dampfschiffahrtsgesellschaft , repaired a large part of their ships, which were badly damaged by the Second World War , and until then they strengthened their ships Fleets had only used used ships, at the end of the 1950s, in addition to the day trip business, it decided to work in what was then a new tourism sector - the multi-day Rhine cruise between Rotterdam and Basel. The PRDG then ordered a needs-based prototype from the Christof Ruthof shipyard in Mainz-Kastel on August 20, 1959 . The keel was laid in October 1959, the launch on April 9 of the following year. The construction costs amounted to 3.2 million  D-Marks . The cabin ship, built under construction number 1437, was delivered to the shipping company on May 29th. Two days later in Mainz , in the presence of Federal Finance Minister Franz Etzel and the Rhineland-Palatinate Prime Minister Peter Altmeier , the ceremonial baptism in the name of Europe took place . As of June 5, it was used by the operating group on the Rhine between Rotterdam and Basel in scheduled service.

Used by the Cologne-Düsseldorfer

The Europa in August 1978
The Victoria Cruziana on her last voyage on the Rhine

On May 16, 1967, ownership was transferred to the Cologne-Düsseldorfer Deutsche Rheinschiffahrt company, which was independent from this point in time . Until 1978, the shipping company's oldest and smallest river cruise ship remained in regular service on the Rhine, Main and Moselle. As a result of insufficient passenger numbers, it was closed for the first time in 1979. In 1981 the KD used the Europa as a hotel ship in various locations. From July 26th to the beginning of September 1982 it was used as a replacement for the Italia, which had been lying in the shipyard for a longer period, for the first time. In the next few years, the operations were repeated as a replacement for the shipping company's ships in shipyards for modernization. At the turn of the year 1984/85 she was modernized even at Shipyard De Hoop . In addition to the installation of a bow thruster , the number of cabins was reduced from the original 75 to 67 when the interior was converted. In 1985 and 1986 the owner used them in planning service on the Rhine and Moselle - from the following year only on the Moselle. In 1989 it received a lowerable hydraulic wheelhouse and a folding flagpole so that bridges with low headroom could also be driven under. In 1990 the Europa was used on the Rhine, Main and Moselle, in the following year only as a hotel ship with a public cafe on the banks of the Rhine in Cologne due to a lack of passengers. From 1992 on, she was only used as a charter ship and on agency trips for other ships. In 1996 she was shut down and finally sold on January 21, 1998 to Bonaventura Cruises in 's-Gravendeel , the Netherlands .

Used as Victoria Cruziana

The new owner named the ship after the water lily species Victoria Cruziana and used it especially for Dutch tourists between Cologne and Basel. In 2004 the owner changed to Naot Holding BV and in the following year to Victoria Cruziana BV . Both companies were also based in 's-Gravendeel. The Victoria Cruziana stayed in service until 2007 . From 2008 the shipping company offered them for sale. In 2010 a buyer was found who wanted to use the ship in Belgrade as a moored hotel ship . After the superstructure had been lowered and the railings folded down, the Tailon push boat pushed the Victoria Cruziana from Rotterdam to Heining , a district of Passau on the Danube , in July . She was anchored there for several months. Since the mooring fees incurred had not been paid, the ship was to be foreclosed on November 19, 2010. On the morning of the auction day, the Victoria Cruziana sank after flooding. Since the financing of the salvage and mooring costs of 400,000 euros had not been clarified due to the insolvency of the Serbian owner, the damaged vessel was only lifted on March 31, 2011 at bayernhafen Group's expense . After the wreck was made buoyant again and the Passau port operator accepted a release fee offered by the ship owner, the Victoria Cruziana left the port of Passau on October 11, 2011. The ship was then converted into a hotel ship in the Belgrade cargo port and has been used as the Hotel Compass River City in Belgrade since the end of 2014 .

Equipment and technology

The Victoria Cruziana was a four-deck mid-range cabin ship with 61 air-conditioned twin cabins - 24 of them were aft on the lower deck, 37 on the main deck. On the promenade deck there was a lounge with a bar facing the bow with large panes of glass . The restaurant, designed for 120 guests, was in the middle. The kitchen was aft as the end of the promenade deck. A swimming pool was available to passengers on the sun deck.

The Victoria Cruziana was four diesel engines á 312  kW of Deutz two Voith-Schneider drives driven. The bow thruster had a 110 kW drive. The ship was 88.48 m long, 11.56 m wide. The maximum draft was given as 1.52 m.

Pictures from a press trip on June 12, 1960

  • The swimming pool

  • Personnel on the bridge

  • The ship's cook at the meat grinder

  • Guests on the sundeck

  • Quiet area in the entrance hall

literature

  • Georg Fischbach: The ships of the Cologne-Düsseldorfer 1826-2004 , self-published, Cologne 2004, ISBN 3-00-016046-9
  • Stephan Nuding: 175 years of Cologne-Düsseldorf Deutsche Rheinschiffahrt AG , Schardt Oldenburg 2001, ISBN 978-3-89841-035-9
  • Armin A. Hummel: '' The Ruthof-Werft Mainz-Kastel and Regensburg, 1871 - 1975 '', Edition Winterwork Borsdorf 2018, ISBN 978-3-96014-456-4

Web links

Commons : Victoria Cruziana (ship)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Article in the weekly newspaper online from November 19, 2010: Passenger ship sunk near Passau-Heining! , accessed April 18, 2012
  2. ↑ a b Georg Fischbach: The ships of the Cologne-Düsseldorfer 1826-2004 , self-published, Cologne 2004, p. 702ff
  3. ↑ Online article in the Passauer Neue Presse , accessed on October 11, 2011
  4. ^ Website of the Compass River City Hotel , accessed June 26, 2015
  5. ↑ Entry on Victoria Cruziana in the Dutch inland waterway database at www.debinnenvaart.nl , accessed on November 11, 2010