World of Ships – May 2018

PADDLE STEAMERS

Paddle Steamers I World of Ships I 33

CHAPTER THREE

CZECH REPUBLIC

J

oseph Rushton and John

Andrews, the Englishmen

responsible for starting

passenger services on the

Austrian stretch of the Danube

and on into Hungary during

the 1830s, later looked to

the Moldau Region in Czechoslovakia to

launch steamer operations in 1841, along the

Danube’s Vltava tributary between Prague and

Dresden, which were developed by Osobni

Lodni Doprava (OSD). Into the 20th century,

services became much more localised, and

by the time the 150th anniversary of steam

navigation was celebrated in 1951 a major

reorganisation was taking place, with a joint

stock company formed to cover Prague’s

city transport and river services, the latter

becoming Prague Passenger Shipping (PPS).

Four steamers were in the fleet into the

1950s, when the main long distance trip

from Prague to Stechovic was extended to

the foot of the Slapy Dam. Now only two are

operational after the sale of Labe (1949) for

service in Germany, while Vysehrad, one of

a pair of steamers introduced in 1938, lost

her name to sister Devin and is now in poor

condition after restoration plans stalled.

Sailings are operated by PPS under an

agreement with Prague cruise company EVD.

VYSEHRAD (II)

OWNER PPS-EDV

BUILT 1938 by Aussiger Schiffswerft, Usti

MACHINERY compound diagonal engine of 220HP from

CKD, Prague, converted to oil fuel 1979

RE-BUILT 1961,1979 and 1992-93

DIMENSIONS 62m x 5.5m (hull), 10.5m (over paddles)

PASSENGERS: 885

One of a pair of steamers built in 1938, as

Devin she ran long-distance services along the

River Vltava into Germany in conjunction with

the Dresden-based Weisse Flotte. She was

hurriedly recalled to Prague after Germany

annexed the Sudetenland. Coming under

German control during World War II, she

was renamed Antonin Svehla and Karlstein

from 1942, and finished the war operating as

a soup kitchen in the bomb-devastated city of

Dresden. After she had been returned to Czech

control, there were further name changes to T.

G. Masaryk (1945) and Devin (1952).

Devin did not sail in 1990-91 and, by the time

a major restoration was completed in 1993,

division of the former Czechoslovakia had left

the town of Devin in Slovakia, and another

Vltava visiting Dresden for a 2011

‘Parade of Steam’, and passing

locally-based paddler Dresden.

Vltava in her regular central Prague berth.

03 Paddlers_Czech Rep_NL.indd 33 17/04/2018 12:25