38 I World of Ships I Paddle Steamers
red velvet upholstery and glittering brass
including some items carefully saved down the
years from the original vessel.
Delivery of the vessel took place by road,
with the 330m by 9m load representing
one of the most complex pieces of transport
organisation ever seen in middle Finland.
Elias Lonnrot carried 21,000 passengers
in a short season after making a June 1986
debut, and since then the vessel’s popularity
on the 30km by 10km Lake Keurusselkä has
increased. The 45-minute-each-way trips to the
resort of Keurusselkä, together with Sunday
sailings, run the length of the lake to Mantta.LAHTIS
OWNER Kauko Sorjonen Foundation
BUILT 1865 by Crichton & Co of Turku in Lahti as a paddle
steamer for Lake Paijanne, Finland
CONVERTED to screw propulsion with new steam engines
and superstructure 1904; after use as a barge preservation
efforts began in 1974
DIMENSIONS 33.73m x 4.78m (hull)Originally built for service on Lake Paijanne,
the iron-hulled steamer is now the subject of
an ongoing preservation programme with slow
progress being made since she was hauled on
land close to the harbour at Jyvaskyla. Builtin Turku by William Crichton and Co, the
vessel was then demolished for transfer in
parts by horse-drawn wagons for reassembly
at Anianpelto at the southern end of the lake.
Lahtis ran between Lahti and Jyvaskala until
she was sold in 1904 and converted to screw
propulsion, with the name shortened to Lahti
before later service as Saari II.
After being used in the 1920s to transport
tar, she was later renamed Iloniemi 6 as a
barge following the removal of the engine.
She changed hands several times and was
in a sunken state into the 1970s, when a
preservation group raised the hull and fitted a
steam engine, with side paddle wheels being
added in 1978.
After sale for a failed museum enterprise
in 1984, she was then bought by Captain
Hannu Hilden in 1989 and taken to dry dock
in Jyvaskyla, before being sold once again to a
preservation society in 2003. Her next role was
as the Noukanniemi Restaurant in Vaajakoski,
until she was transported overland in May
2014 in two parts to the Noukanniemesta
Arts centre. The vessel is now owned by the
charitable Kauko Sorjonen Foundation, who
hope to achieve restoration for operational
service, with the support of the Lahtis Paddle
Steamer Society, which is raising funds.Stern view as Elias Lonnrot heads
away from home base Keuruu.
(Russell Plummer)P
addle steamers disappeared
from French services on
the English Channel and
Mediterranean ports at a
fairly early stage, although
there are still continuing calls
by Swiss-owned Lake Geneva
fleet members at piers on the French area
of the lake. The country’s last lake steamer,
France, delivered by Swiss builder Escher Wyss
in 1909, operated on Lake Annecy in the Savoie
Region until 1963. A typical EW product of the
Zurich-based company, France bore a close
resemblance to Lake Maggiore’s Piemonte and
was said to be a slightly scaled-down version of
still operational Zurichsee steamer Stadt Zurich.
Boiler problems halted France’s working life
and, after talk of renovation came to nothing,
she was used as a holiday home near Annecy
until foundering at her moorings in 1971.
Small paddle vessels were also used for
river trips from cities, including Nantes,CHAPTER SIX
FRANCE
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