World of Ships – May 2018

90 I World of Ships I Paddle Steamers

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

PADDLERS ASHORE

RIGI

Rigi was Greenwich-built in 1846 by

Ditchborne and Mare with an oscillating

engine by John Penn and Son, but two years

passed before a Lake Lucerne debut. Over

a period of two years she sailed under her

own power across the North Sea to Holland

before continuing along the Rhine to Basel,

where she was dismantled and taken overland

for reassembly in Lucerne at the start of an

operational career lasting over a century. A

4m lengthening in 1860 took the hull to 40.2m

and a width of 4.3m (8.6m over the paddles).

Rigi was reboilered 1872 and fitted with a new

engine, a process which was repeated in 1894

when Escher Wyss of Zurich provided the

replacement machinery.

Rigi was out of service from 1915 to 1920,

and when reactivated there was talk of

conversion to diesel machinery, but nothing

materialised and she remained steam-powered

until she retired in 1952, after covering almost

two million kilometres of revenue-earning

service. Six years later there was a short

move overland to form a café centrepiece of

Lucerne’s newly-established Verkehrshaus

Swiss Transport Museum in 1958.

A feasibility study was made in 2005 as

to whether Rigi could be restored to steam

on Lake Lucerne, but it was decided not to

proceed. Then in 2006 it was decided to rebuild

her as a static exhibit as close as possible to

her original 1840s condition. Rigi’s original

John Penn oscillating engine is on display at

the museum together with the engine, boiler

and part of the main saloon from the steamer

Pilatus, built in 1895, which had covered

1,974,252km up to her withdrawal in 1966.

FRIBOURG

The younger sister of paddle veteran

Neuchatel, now back in service on Lake

Neuchatel following restoration, Fribourg was

completed and engined by Escher Wyss in

1913 as a one-and-half-deck steamer without

masts, and a funnel that could be lowered to

pass beneath bridges on canals linking Lake

Neuchatel with the Lakes of Morat and Biel.

After the 46m vessel was withdrawn in 1965,

she was established on land as a restaurant at

the side of the Hotel St Louis in Portalban at

the southern end of the lake.

RIESA

Built in Dresden and introduced to Elbe

service in 1896 named Habsburg, powered

by a 145hp compound oscillating engine,

she became Riesa in 1919 and was restored

after being partially blown up by Hitler

Youth Members towards the end of World

War II. The wreck was refitted for a return to

service in 1947 and operated until withdrawn

following boiler failure in 1976. Riesa was

taken to Oderburg, close to the Polish

border, to become a riverside museum on

land in 1978, ownership later switching to

Forderverein Binnenschiffahrts.

SEEPERLE

A flush deck steamer built by Werft Blasewitz

and delivered to the Dresden fleet as Graf

Molke in 1892 was used as Lobositz from 1919.

In 1936 the 57.4m vessel, originally powered

by a 110hp oscillating engine, was rebuilt to

run as a replica of Koningin Mariam, which

had introduced steam navigation to the region

a century earlier. Reverting afterwards to

Lobositz, she went to Czechoslovakia from

1945 to 1949 and then returned to the Dresden

A number of paddle steamers remain in existence on dry land, with

the list including vessels serving as restaurants or hotels, while others

are in the care of museums.

A stern view of Rigi

as she now appears.

ABOVE A bow view of Rigi, restored to 1840s condition at the Swiss Transport Museum in Lucerne.

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