STATICALLY PRESERVED
PADDLE STEAMERS Ships with new roles
and no plans for a return to service
It was a shock
when PS Wilhelm Tell (left, built in 1908) was withdrawn from service
on Lake Lucerne in 1970, mobilising local steamer enthusiasts into
a campaign to save her. In what was one of the earliest concerted
campaigns to save a paddle steamer, the vessel was not saved for service, but saved
by restauranteurs whose family still own her today. She is moored
at Luzern, very close to the steamer piers and her old contemporaries
still pass closely by her daily in the main season. Wilhelm Tell
must rank as one of the most successful of statically preserved
steamers.
PRESERVED PADDLERS
IN USE AS MARITIME MUSEUM EXHIBITS WITH FREE PUBLIC ACCESS
The prospects for Wingfield Castle, also a Hull
- New Holland ferry, seemed
bleak as she was towed around the British coastline in
failed plans to make her the centre-piece of Marina
developments first at Brighton and then at Swansea.
Purchased by the town of Hartlepool and taken back to her
birthplace, she was restored by master craftsmen to become
part of the north-eastern town's municipal museum.
The former KD Rhein paddler serves as a
floating industrial museum on the River Neckar at Mannheim near the
Kurpfalzbrucke . Built in 1929 and operational until 1980,
she was disposed of from the KD reserve fleet in 1984 and
opened in her new use in 1986. Her machinery remains
intact
The former Elbe paddler (ex Habsburg of
1897) and close sister to Schmilka, Junger Pionier and
Pirna, was withdrawn in 1976 and taken out of the water at
Oderburg and used as a museum.
When the city of Luzern was establishing
its now famous transport museum, the "Verkehrshaus", it was
decided to use the derelict paddler Rigi (1848-1952) as an
exhibit in the central courtyard. Dragged over a short piece
of land, the spartan vessel was the centre-piece of the
courtyard cafeteria from 1958 until 2006. She is now being rebuilt
to approximate her original appearance and will return to being
a major exhibit. Earlier hopes of returning
her to service as a real "vintage" steamer were ruled
out after serious consideration.
Close to the
Chain Bridge (Szechenyi lanchid) on the Pest side of Budapest, Hungary,
Kossuth (1914-78) , serves from Spring to Autumn as a
bar/restaurant, with maritime museum exhibits on the lower
decks. She emerged after substantial reconstruction in 1953
named Kossuth, having carried three previous names, being
built in 1914 as Ferencz Ferdinand Foherczeg. She assumed
her current role in 1986 and is now owned by a museum organisation.
PRESERVED PADDLERS
IN COMMERCIAL ROLES WITH FREE PUBLIC ACCESS
PS Maid of the Loch at Balloch, Scotland, whilst open as
a cafe and function centre, is being re-fitted for a return to service so is
listed in the "Laid-Up Paddle Steamers" section of the database. Click
here to see details of this ship
Incredibly, all three of the paddle
ferries plying between Hull and New Holland in the UK have
survived. Tattershall Castle, the first to be withdrawn,
quickly found a use in central London as an Art gallery but
later became a pub and night club with a considerable degree
of success, having graced the River Thames for over 25 years. She received
a major rebuild in 2004 during which her paddles and vents were
removed in a controversial "modernisation" for the London
recreation market.
W
Unexpectedly withdrawn from service in
1970, Wilhelm Tell of 1908 was quickly established as a
restuarant ship and has become an integral feature of the
waterfront at her home port, Lucerne in Switzerland.
Former US Coastguard cutter, built in 1925 by the Dubuque
Boat & Boiler Co in Iowa for the Lighthouse Sevice on the Mississippi.
200 feet long with an extremely large breadth of 65 feet, she
served until late 1944 when she was involved in a collission and
paid-off in 1945. She became an accommodation boat for the US army
Corps of Engineers, having had her machinery removed. Sold in 1962,
she went to Florida 10 years later but lay abandoned until sold
to Themes International based in the UK, crossing the Atlantic to
Southampton on a semi-submersible in 1989. She went to Antwerp,
Belgium for refurbishment but Themes went out of business and Willow
remained at Antwerp until 1995 when she returned to the UK, this
time to Birkenhead. Her next move was to Spain in 1996 for operation
as a restaurant ship.
The small ex-River Dart paddler
(1914-1962) is moored at Lemon Quay, Truro in Cornwall,
south-west England and was used as a flower shop and cafe until 2008. She is
an almost identical older sister to PS Kingswear Castle, but
has been rebuilt significantly from her original form.
Compton Castle has been at Truro since 1984. She has now been sold
(2008) and will be re-opened in fully refurbished form as a nautical-themed restaurant
with a traditional tea room in the lower deck, run by renowned local
chef Kevin Viner.
MACHINERY REMOVED but preserved at the Blackgang Chine
Museum on the Isle of Wight.
The former Lake Maggiore paddler serves
as a floating restaurant at Arona, where she has been moored
since 1969. She served on the lake from 1908 until 1958 and
was first used as a restaurant at Baveno.
MACHINERY REMOVED
PRESERVED PADDLERS, PRIVATELY
OWNED, WITH RESTRICTED PUBLIC ACCESS
Steamers with engines in-situ
Borcea Braila, Romania
PS Borcea of 1914 serves as an education
and training ship at Braila, Romania, owned by a local
orphanage. She is believed to have been in a local shipyard
since 1999. Originally a tug built at Turnu Severin with engines by
Sachsenberg (of Rosslau), she was converted to a passenger ship for
cruises and holidays for communist youth organisations.
Radetzky Kozloduj,
Bulgaria
The converted paddle tug Radetzky lies as a museum and youth hostel
at Kozloduj, with engines and boilers still intact. Built in Obuda, Budapest
in 1954, this 54.4 metre long paddler was one of the so-called "Series
732" tugs, a standard design at the time for vessels built in Eastern Europe,
with over a hundred built and mostly found in service in the USSR. Originally
called "Ploviov", this Bulgarian-owned example was rebuilt in 1964-66
to resemble an old DDSG passenger steamer named Radetzky built in 1852 and which
survived until 1913. New passenger saloons were added and although some features
remained which were not true to the original "Radetzky". The original
Radetzky had an important place in Bulgarian history, having been boarded by
Bulgarian independence fighters at the beginning of a revolt against Austro-Hungarian
Habsburg rule in 1876. In her new guise she was used for cruises for the Bulgarian
Young Pioneers' Movement and was known to have sailed as far upstream as Vienna.
See photos on the Hungarian Ship Register website: http://www.hajoregiszter.hu/index.php?l=sdetails&lang=hun&i=2366
This former Russian river paddle steamer, built in 1903, has
been restored to act as a good-quality hotel morred on the Buda
side of the Danube in the northers suburbs of Budapest, having been
bought by the MINOL company in 2005 after having spent nine years
in Albania. Most of her life was spent under the name "Pamjaty
Azina", but was known as "Iliria" when in Albania
MOTOR PADDLE VESSEL (Originally a steamer) : Still able to move under her own
power if needed Renowned as the first major paddle
steamer to be converted to diesel operation back in 1934 at
the age of 38, the ship continued to serve on Lake Geneva
for a further 39 years. She has served for many years as cultural
and social centre for disadvantaged youth at Geneva
Has become a popular bar / cafe, moored
on the Danube Canal at Vienna (Wien), Austria, but is currently being
reconstructed as a luxury hotel ship, which is expected to re-open
in late 2007.
MACHINERY REMOVED
The former Southampton-Isle of Wight
(England) paddler of 1927 was moved to Dunkerque on the
northern French coast after being moved from her berth at
Paris where she served as a floating art gallery and
conference centre at Pont Mirabeau.
MACHINERY REMOVED
MOTOR PADDLE VESSEL Built in 1963 as part of the
Dresden-based White Fleet's modernisation programme, the
former "Karl Marx" was one of four diesel-electric paddlers
built at Rosslau. In 1999, after many years laid up, she was
renovated and opened as a youth hostel at Dresden-Neustadt,
named "Koje"
MOTOR PADDLE VESSEL Sister ship of Poppelmann and named
"Friedrich Engels" until 1991, she is renovated and used by
the CVJM (YMCA in English) as a youth hostel at
Dresden-Neustadt
Several examples of paddle steamer engines have been preserved
after removal from their ship and are available for public viewing. One of the finest examples
is that of the former Lake Lucerne paddler Pilatus, displayed at
the Verkehrshaus, the Swiss National Transport Museum at Lucerne.
In public service,
their operating companies and website links (includes motor paddlers) Paddlers under
restoration for a possible return to service or still awaiting their fate Paddle
Steamers decommissioned and now with new roles as restaurants, museums etc
Projects
for new paddle steamers
Vessels scrapped in recent years
By country and area : Paddle
Steamers and service operators of the past General Description and
link to view Operational and preserved paddle steamer engines
The ultimate fleet of coastal cruising steamers Search
here for British Paddle Steamers The webmaster's photograph
collection in thumbnail form Preserved
paddle Tugs Steamships
or diesel conversions propelled by a stern wheel (Mississippi-style) Organisations you
can join or channel financial assistance through
Articles and photographs
: current issues and vessel profiles Personal comments on matters of steamer preservation interest -
your comments welcomed ! Sites
listed in the database plus other sites of interest (European ships)
Clyde and other passenger
turbine
steamers, surviving ferries and ocean liners Vessels for which
there are photographs in the Tramscape collection only Link to Tramscape's extensive
tramway photograph collection
Erhaltener Raddampfer : Vapeurs
à roues à aubes en preservation
