PADDLE STEAMERS
Paddle Steamers I World of Ships I 83
LAKE NEUCHATEL
ABOVE Neuchatel high and dry while being lifted
ABOVE Neuchatel carrying a good load near out of the water for restoration work to begin.
Yverdon in 2015.The restored Neuchatel returned to service
on Lakes Neuchatel and Morat in 2014
after operating as a restaurant since her
withdrawal in 1972.The linked lakes of Neuchatel and Morat
in Eastern Switzerland had early steamer
experience with the 26.5m wooden-hulled
vessel Union, which was engined by Boulton
and Watt of Birmingham, and introduced
from Yverdon during 1826. Initially, traffic
figures failed to live up to expectations and,
after sailings lasted only two years, it was
not until 1834 that L’Industriel started an
unbroken period of paddle steam navigation
that lasted until 1969, when Neuchatel was
withdrawn after a first working life of 57 years.
The current operator, Societe de Navigation
sur les Lacs de Neuchatel et de Morat, was
established in 1872 through a combination of
Fribourg and Morat companies founded by the
local Canton of Fribourg after the demise of
earlier interests with the coming of the railway
along the banks of Lake Neuchatel in 1859.
Nowadays services concentrate on the main
lake, but also serve the smaller lakes of Moratand Biel, which are linked by a navigable
channel. The last two operational paddle
steamers, Neuchatel (1912) and Fribourg
(1913), were both withdrawn and sold in the
late 1960s, with Fribourg being taken ashore
for use as a restaurant at Portalban since 1966.
Neuchatel also had a restaurant role until she
was rescued by enthusiast group Tripavor and
brought back into service with a second-hand
steam engine and new boiler in 2013.NEUCHAT EL
BUILT 1912 by Escher Wyss, Zurich
DIMENSIONS Length 48.50m, width 6m (hull), 11m (over
paddles)
MACHINERY Compound diagonal by builders (350hp),
removed 1972; replaced by compound diagonal (360hp)
with new boiler in 2013
SPEED 26kmh (14.7 knots)
PASSENGERS 550Neuchatel, Switzerland’s last surviving steamer
of one-and-a-half deck design, was introduced
in 1912 and sailed until 1972, when she was
taken out of service to operate as a restaurant
in Neuchatel. Her very welcome return in
2013 came after an extensive rebuilding,
including the installation of a new boiler and
a second-hand Maffei double-diagonal engine
that previously powered the steamer Ludwig
Fessler on Chiemsee in Bavaria.
Built with sister vessel Fribourg (1913) for
service on the lakes Neuchatel and Morat,
Neuchatel passed to two different owners
as a restaurant following withdrawal in- But enthusiast body Trivapor had a
big success in 2007, when agreement was
reached for a transfer of ownership at a price
of SwFr600,000. Renovation, including the
restoration of the engine by SGV Shiptec,
was carried out at Sugiez at a reported cost of
SwFr12million, half of which was donated by
Bern-based enthusiast Marc Oesterle.
First trial runs were completed in September
2013, but Neuchatel’s inaugural 2014 season
ended early due to boiler problems and the
fact that the Italian manufacturer, Garioni
Naval, had gone into bankruptcy. Since 2015
Neuchatel has settled into service, with three
return trips between Neuchatel, Cudrefin and
Portalban; Thursdays and most Sundays bring
cruises from Neuchatel to Morat although in
2017 the first Sunday of June, July, August
and September brought a trip down the
whole lake to Yverdon, from where there were
return trips to Grandson before the three-hour
run back to Neuchatel.
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