94 I World of Ships I Paddle Steamers
major refurbishment took place between 1988
and 1993, when the steam engine was replaced
by twin diesel enginesPOLAND
Flush-decked paddle steamers similar to
those running from Dresden on the River
Elbe in Germany operated on the Vistula in
Poland, with services between Warsaw and
Gdansk by vessels from the State-controlled
Zegluga Warszawska Przedsiębiorstwo
Panstwowe (SWPP) including Stanislaw, laid
down in 1914 but not completed until 1919,
which was sunk in 1944 but came back into
service as Gen Swierczewski in 1948. Further
reconstructions followed in 1957 and 1963,
the latter including the provision of cabin
accommodation for 100 passengers on weekly
Warsaw-Gdansk round trips, which included
overnight sailing.
Gen Swierczewski was the only operational
paddle steamer at the 150th anniversary of
the start of steam navigation on the Vistula
in 1977, when the vessel appeared on special
postage stamps, continuing in service for
a further couple of years until laid up at
Jadwisin on Lake Zegrzyn.
Other large paddle steamers included
1926-built Baltyk, which served as a hostel
for river maintenance under the name Alina
into the 1980s, and Felix Dzerzhinskiy, under
construction when World War I started and
not completed until 1925, only to be sunk in- Recommissioned in the early 1950s she
was laid up in 1972 and was later reported to
have become a wreck. A fascinating survivor
was Smialy, originally Gresham from the
30-strong paddle fleet introduced by London
County Council for a Thames service in 1905.
Built at Southampton by J.I.Thornycroft
and with a compound diagonal engine by
Scotts of Greenock, she was sold to owners
in East Prussia in 1911 with later service on
the Rivers Oda and Vistula, until becoming a
tug at Prague in 1926. There was a return to
the Vistula in World War II, but she sank in
1942 and was raised and returned to service
as Smialy from 1947. From 1955 to 1958 her
role changed and she was used as a river
inspection vessel at Plock before a similar
role at Tczew until withdrawal after ten
years. Then the hull, believed to still contain
the engine, was brought ashore for use as a
clubhouse at Mielno on the north Polish coast
before a move for a similar role at the resort of
Lazy, close to Koszalin.
The city authorities in Warsaw bought the
former paddle tug Warmia, formerly Lubecki,
Zimsen and originally Poljak, which had been
built in St Petersburg, Russia before being
reassembled in Wloclawek in 1911. She was
powered by kerosene-burning engines (which
are believed to be in the Warsaw Museum
of Technology). After conversion to diesel
in 1964, she continued in service until 1972,
when she became a floating restaurant at
Serock on the River Narew, just north of
Warsaw. A civil engineering company bought
the vessel in 2005 and in 2009 she was given
to the Warsaw city authorities. In an almost
derelict state, the 50m ship has been allocated
to Zegluga Wroclawska, with work taking place
in the Malbo shipyard at Wroclaw since 2015.ABOVE The steamer Gen Swierczewski appeared
on a postage stamp issued in 1977 to mark the
150th anniversary of steam navigation on the
river Vistula.ABOVE The earlier name Republica was restored
in 2003 to a vessel listed as a Romanian cultural
heritage monument.Built in 2015 and owned by Zbigniew
Selerowicz, Gloria Mechanica is 14.6m in
length, with a hull 3.2m wide and 5m over
the paddles. She is powered by a 136hp
Mercedes diesel engine with hydraulic drive
to the paddles. Gloria Mechanica made
her inaugural trip from Plock to Warsaw in
August 2015 and remains in the Polish capital.
Modern motor side-wheeler Jagienka appears
very similar and may even be the side-wheeler
Pomeranka that was at Gdansk in the late 1990s.A paddle tug built as Croatia in 1854 was transferred to Romania
after World War 1 and rebuilt as Tudor Vladimiscu in 2003.13 Paddlers_ashore_NL.indd 94 17/04/2018 09:28