PADDLE STEAMERS
Paddle Steamers I World of Ships I 95
ROMANIA
Conversion of paddle tugs into passenger
vessels was a relatively cheap expedient much
favoured by NAVROM, the Romanian State
Authority for shipping on the Danube, which
is run from headquarters in Bucharest, with
passenger services provided from Orsova
and Giurgiu. Few of the steamers adapted for
passenger use on the River Danube and in the
Danube Delta are thought to have survived,
although a couple of interesting vessels are
still in existence.TUDOR VLADIMIRISCU
Built for Austria’s DDSG as the paddle tug
Croatia at Budapest in 1854 and powered by
a twin oscillating engine from Escher Wyss
of Switzerland, which was compounded in
1867, she was renamed Sarmisegetuza when
transferred to Romania in 1918 as part of the
World War I reparations. Rebuilt as a 65.8m
passenger vessel sailing primarily between
Braila and Sulina, she underwent further
name changes to Grigore Manu in 1923 and
then Tudor Vladimirescu in the wake of the
post-World War II Communist takeover.
Extensive rebuilding, including a new bridge
and superstructure, took place at the Orsova
Shipyard in 1958 for cruises to the Danube
Delta. Plans for a reconstruction at the Damen
Shipyard, Galati in 2000 stalled through lack
of funds, before the vessel finally emerged
substantially rebuilt, with modern funnels and
in operational condition, during August 2003.
She is not thought to be in regular service,
but is available for charter, especially for
corporate and government use.REPUBLICA
Republica was built by Ganz-Danubius in
Budapest in 1916 as one of DDSG’s 14.54mBalaton class of tug and powered by a double
diagonal steam engine. After World War I she
became the property of the Romanian State
and was named Capitan Comandor Paun, and
from 1947 until 1991, Republica. Still serving in
the Romanian navy, she was renamed as part
of a policy of restoring old names, and became
Locotenent-comandor Vasile Paun, although
the name was not the original one or the correct
rank of the naval hero. In 2003 she reverted to
Republica and was converted to burn oil rather
than coal. Since 2008 she has been listed as a
national cultural heritage monument.RUSSIA
Many Russian rivers are navigable for only
part of the year, with those in Siberia ice-
bound for as much eight months, while even
some further south are closed for between
four and six months. Extensive use of ice-
breakers extends the navigation seasons, with
modern cabin motor vessels, many from yards
in the former East Germany, operating where
paddle steamers once held the sway. There are
reports of steam vessels laid up on the rivers
Volga, Dniepr and Don, while exceptionally
low water levels resulted in the return of some
side-wheelers as recently as 1988.TYPE 737 CABIN STEAMERS
Although passenger vessels and tugs from
Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland and, in
particular, Germany were claimed by the
Soviet Union as World War II reparations,
there was an urgent need for new tonnage
by the 1950s, and 65 long-distance cabin
steamers designated Type 737 were built
between 1951 and 1963. They served on the
Don, Dniepr, Volga, Ob and Lena rivers. All
came from Budapest’s Obuda Shipyard, which
also provided 450hp compound diagonalABOVE Bogdan Khmelnitskiy operates as a hotel
ship in Kiev but can be chartered for River Dniepr
summer trips.ABOVE Dating from 1958, T. Dostoyevsky with fire damage forward following an outbreak in 2008.ABOVE/BELOW Type 737 cabin paddler K. M.
Stanyukovich undergoing private restoration at
Nizhny Novgorod on the River Volga.RESTORATION OF 737
VESSEL ON THE VOLGA
Type 737 vessel K. M. Stanyukovich is being
restored by a private owner and is seen lying
both amid the winter snow and in warmer
conditions at the Gorodetsky Yard on the
banks of the River Volga in Russia, the exterior
having had primer paint applied. There
are also views of the vessel’s two-cylinder
compound diagonal engine, which is being
retained and will take steam from a new boiler.13 Paddlers_ashore_NL.indd 95 17/04/2018 09:28