World of Ships – May 2018

PADDLE STEAMERS

Paddle Steamers I World of Ships I 97

ABOVE Dating back to 1887, Krasnoyarsk is now a museum ship at the Siberian town whose name she carries.

Waterways Authority, but there was fire

damage in 2007 while a film was being shot on

board. Reports from 2015 suggested the vessel

was lying half-sunken near Belgrade.

SLOVAKIA

The last paddle steamers had disappeared

from the 200km Czechoslovakian stretch of

the Danube before this part of the country

became Slovakia in 1992. Bratislava, the

capital, has long enjoyed a major role in

Danube navigation and gave its name to a

cabin steamer from the Russian Type 737

design built in 1958 and used for trades union

trips until 1975. A new role as a floating hotel

began the following year, but was cut short

when the ship was gutted by fire and declared

a total loss. However one long serving steamer

does appear to have a static future, Slovakena.

SLOVAKENA

A 35.5m vessel built in 1911 at the Ruthof Yard

in Deggendorf, Germany for the cross-Danube

ferry service from Bratislava to Petrzalka,

sailing for MFTR, the Royal Hungarian

Steamship Company. After World War I and

independence from Austria-Hungary, the

vessel went into Czechoslovakian hands and

was renamed Bratislava, before a change to

Dunaj in 1931. Eight years later she was taken

over by the Hungarian Army and transferred

to Budapest for local ferry work as Taban.

Restored to Czechoslovakian ownership after

World War II, she became Devin in 1952 and

remained in service until 1960, when she was

opened as a fish restaurant in Bratislava in 1968.

A sale to tour operating company Javorina took

place in 1972, but after suffering fire damage

she had a spell as a rowing club HQ from 1978.

Then, she became a night club in 1998 until

further night club service from 2000, before

being moved near to Nove Pristavisko on the

Danube close to Bratislava. She has been opened

as an art gallery named Slovakena on the

Petrzalka side of the Danube at Bratislava.

failed to get off the ground, and the vessel

was moved to Volgorechensk before being

bought in 2006 by a company from Yaroslavl,

who started a renovation programme in the

northern suburbs of Moscow.

SERBIA

With the break-up of Yugoslavia, much of

the territory through which the Danube

flows fell under Serbian control, including

the key stretch from Belgrade to the

borders with Romania and Bulgaria. The

last paddle steamer in the Belgrade-based

former Yugoslavian State Fleet (JRB) was

ex-Hungarian vessel Beograd, dating from

1909 and broken up in 1966. Long a part of

the Belgrade scene moored on the river Save

close to where it joins the Danube is former

passenger steamer Split, built at Regensburg,

Germany, in 1898 and which celebrated 60

years of operational service during 1958 prior

to starting a static restaurant role.

Also still in existence are the following:

BORCEA • Built in 1914 at Turnu Severin,

Borcea was originally a royal yacht for

King Ferdinand of Yugoslavia until later

conversion to operate as a passenger vessel.

Measuring 39.43m in length and with a beam

of 10.9m, she is powered by a compound

diagonal engine built at Rosslau, Germany by

Sachsenberg Brothers. Seized by the Russians

during World War II and towed to Odessa,

Borcea was returned after being damaged by

fire. She was used for cruises and holidays for

communist youth organisations until being

withdrawn in 1971, laid up and ready to be

scrapped. Various uses followed, including as

a steam generator at a fish-canning factory,

until the vessel was designated as a national

Historical Monument in 1984 and repair work

then took place intermittently.

A sale to Swiss interests failed after the

intervention of the Director of the Museum of

Braila and work resumed in 2000. By 2005

the external structure was fully repaired and

money was then allocated for a refurbishment

of the interior. She is now owned by the

Serbian Ministry of Education and Heritage

and remains in operable condition, and in

October 2010 was restored sufficiently to offer

children short one-hour cruises from Braila.

KRAJINA • The former Yugoslavian royal

yacht, used by King Alexander and Queen

Maria, was built in 1927 at Ubigau, Dresden,

and taken in sections to the Danube for

reassembly at Regensburg. With a length of

56.82m and compound diagonal engines of

500hp, she was originally named Dragor

before a change to Gernot in 1941. There

was a spell in the aftermath of World War

II when she was known as California while

commandeered by American forces. She

became Krajina, with a major renovation

in 1951 before Yugoslav’s President Tito

used her as his yacht. Her main role was as

an inspection ship for the Yugoslav Inland

ABOVE Once a cross-Danube ferry at Bratislava, Slovakena is now an art gallery at Petrzalka in the Slovakian capital.

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