Winkelried (ship, 1870)
 Winkelried in Geneva
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The Winkelried , sometimes also Le Winkelried or Winkelried II , named after Arnold Winkelried , was the largest steamship in Switzerland when it was delivered and the first half-saloon steamship on Lake Geneva . As the only ship with two chimneys on Lake Geneva, the Winkelried was the most famous and popular ship of the Geneva steamers at the end of the First World War .
history
In the 1870s, passenger shipping on Lake Geneva was in the hands of three companies that together formed an operating company. These were the Compagnie de l'Helvétie , L'Aigle, société anonyme de bateau à vapeur and Société du bateau à vapeur le Léman. The operating company purchased the Winkelried as the last ship before the merger to form Compagnie générale de navigation sur le Lac Léman (CGN) in 1873.
On the initiative of L'Aigle, société anonyme de bateau à vapeur , the Winkelried was built by Escher Wyss in the Morges Werfi over the winter of 1869/1870 . The launch took place on July 7, 1870, just twelve days before the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War . At the end of this war, the Winkelried transported 14,500 soldiers from the Bourbaki Army interned in Switzerland back to France.
In 1897 the ship was rebuilt for 163,262 francs . Four new steam boilers will be installed, the upper deck will be raised by 15 cm and extended over the central nave and added in front of the wheel arches on the main deck. In 1918 the ship was to be sold to the French Navy . The deal did not take place, the ship was canceled.
technology
The 60 m long ship was designed as a half saloon steamer, which means that it had an upper deck in the rear area of the ship. It was driven by a two-cylinder steam engine with an impressive output of 850 hp for the time. As a result, the ship was able to transport 1,100 people and reached the record speed of 28.5 km / h.
literature
- Meister, Gwerder, Liechti: Boat trip on Lake Geneva: Les grands bateaux du lac Léman . Springer, 2013, ISBN 978-3-0348-6457-2 , pp. 48 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
