The Wilhelm in Friedrichshafen, painting by Eberhard Emminger, around 1825
After the failed attempt in 1818 to bring steamship to Lake Constance with the Stephanie , no one dared to use the new propulsion technology for ships for years, especially in Baden.
The Stuttgart publisher Johann Friedrich Cotta , encouraged by Edward Church, the then consul of the United States of America in Bordeaux , and the Konstanz banker and textile manufacturer David Macaire d'Hoggner , made the proposal to King Wilhelm I to establish a Lake Constance shipping company. Edward Church had built the first Swiss steamboat Guillaume Tell for Lake Geneva in May 1823 in Geneva . The king was enthusiastic and in 1824 the construction of a steamship began . It was put into service on November 10, 1824 and baptized in the name of Wilhelm . The Wilhelm operated on the line between Friedrichshafen and Rorschach / Romanshorn . This created the first regular boat connection on Lake Constance. The steamboat had a wooden hull. In 1829 this was so used up by the vibrations of the steam engine that it had to be repaired with oak wood from the royal forest. In 1847 another smooth-deck steamer, the Queen of Württemberg , was put into service in Friedrichshafen , whereupon the decrepit Wilhelm was retired and demolished a year later. A new smooth deck steamer named Wilhelm was built in 1851.
literature
Max Messerschmid: The steam boat "Wilhelm" 1824-1848 , in: Writings of the Association for the History of Lake Constance and its Surroundings , 93rd year 1975, pp. 119-148 ( digitized version )
